Selimiye Mosque.

What to see at Selimiye Mosque

• A west porch of three bays, each under its own gable with a crocketed edge, in front of three portals.
• Above the porch, a great pointed window with a wheel of tracery in its head.
• Two square, unfinished, flat-topped west towers, each carrying an Ottoman minaret; the minarets stand about 49 metres to the finial.
• Along the sides, six nave bays of unequal width, each with a flying buttress whose upper part is pierced with quatrefoils, all under flat terrace roofs.
• At the east end, a seven-sided apse with a buttress at every angle, and chapel blocks along the flanks.
• Honey-coloured limestone throughout, with paler blocks where the stone has been repaired.

History of Selimiye Mosque

1209

Work begins on the cathedral of Saint Sophia, in what is now the walled city of Lefkoşa, on the site of today's Selimiye Camii.

1326

The cathedral is consecrated on 5 November, more than a century after work began.

Lusignan period

The Lusignan kings take the crown of Cyprus here, in the largest church on the island.

1570

Soon after 9 September the cathedral becomes a mosque. Two minarets are raised on the west towers, which were never finished.

Today

Lefkoşa's main mosque, and the largest Gothic church to survive on the island.

Visiting Selimiye Mosque

Allow about half an hour. Selimiye Camii is a working mosque: dress modestly, remove your shoes and avoid prayer times. It stands in the middle of the walled city of Lefkoşa; a car park is about 50 metres away, and intercity buses stop at Girne Kapısı, about 600 metres on foot. Walk round the outside as well: the west front, the long south side with its buttresses and the east apse each show a different part of the building.

About the Selimiye Mosque 3D model

The model shows the outside only. It is built from a measured plan and cross-section of the 1890s, with the overall size, about 79 metres long and 42 across, taken from an aerial view. The minaret height, 49 metres, is a published figure and matches a second reading from a photograph to within 1 per cent. Heights between the measured ones are placed by eye against photographs, to within about a metre. The small apses on the chapels are left out. It has not had its final review yet.

Open the 3D model of Selimiye Mosque

Monuments near Selimiye Mosque

• Bedestenabout 50 m south-westThe old church turned covered market, right beside the mosque.
• Saçaklı Evabout 100 m eastAn Ottoman courtyard house with deep eaves.
• Lapidary Museumabout 100 m eastMedieval carved stone in a 15th-century house.