Üveys Pasha Mosque

Üveys Pasha Mosque, in the Köprülü neighborhood of Aydın's Efeler district, is regarded as the oldest Ottoman mosque still standing in the city center. It is attributed to Kara Üveys Pasha, who served as chief treasurer and provincial governor during the reign of Sultan Murad III in the later sixteenth century. The building has no surviving foundation inscription, but a date recorded by the contemporary poet Kadı Muhyiddin Efendi places its construction in the Islamic year 976, corresponding to 1568. Architecturally it follows a square plan beneath a single dome, with the transition to the dome handled through corner squinches, and a north-facing portico of four columns divided into three bays. The mosque withstood the fires that swept through Aydın during the Greek occupation of 1919 to 1922, a period in which much of the surrounding historic fabric was destroyed, and it remains in use for worship today.