Şahadet Mosque

Shahadet Mosque, also known as Kale Mosque or Saray Mosque, a historic mosque in the Tophane district of Bursa.

It was commissioned by Murad I in 1365 opposite the Bey Palace. At the time of its construction it was the largest mosque in the city. It was destroyed in the 1855 Bursa earthquake and was rebuilt in 1890 by Governor Celaleddin Pasha in a style suitable to the period (neo‑Renaissance and neo‑Gothic). Its present form is reduced to two‑thirds of the original.

When first built it was a Ulu Mosque type. A three‑section, nine‑dome structure with the same plan as Murad I’s mosque in Plovdiv, it was the first public mosque with many columns and many domes. Today the main prayer space is covered by two consecutive domes; this space remains from the old mosque. The front façade and side walls were renewed during the 19th‑century repair.

Because the building is within Bursa Castle it has been called “Kale Mosque”, and because it is opposite the Bey Palace it has been called “Saray Mosque”. Some sources state that after Murad I fell as a martyr in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo the building received the name “Shahadet Mosque”. According to one tradition, Murad I did not perform the obligatory prayers and this caused public resentment, so he had the mosque built to bear witness to his prayer; therefore it was called “Shahadet Mosque”.

Closed for worship during the World War II years, the mosque was reopened for worship in 1946 at the request of the Bursa Society of Lovers of Old Works, after simple repairs were carried out and it resumed service.

Above the eastern gate there is a marble inscription in small Arabic script. This inscription belongs to the prayer hall built by Orhan Gazi in the Hisar when Bursa was conquered and which was destroyed in the 1855 earthquake. The prayer hall in Hisar has not survived to the present day.