Hoca Alizade Mosque

Hoca Alizade Mosque in Bursa was built in 1439 by two merchant brothers, Hoca Ömer and Hoca Ahmet, sons of a man known as Hoca Ali, according to an inscription on their tombstones in the mosque's garden. The building has a square plan with a large central dome and is lit by eighteen windows set into its walls. Its minaret has a single balcony, with a shaft of brick rising from a cut-stone base and topped by a conical cap, and a historic fountain stands beside the mosque's outer door. The interior preserves original decorative work, including painted ornamentation, pencil-work motifs, and painted window arches and dome decorations that have survived largely intact. The mosque was restored to its original appearance in 1955, and it continues to serve its historic neighborhood, named Hocaalizade after its founders.