İznik Hacı Özbek Mosque

The structure is the first Ottoman Mosque, the epitaph of which we currently have. It is very important as it is the first Ottoman structure with its epitaph and known date. Another characteristic of the structure is that it is accepted as the first example of the central dome structure built in the Western Anatolia in the Early Ottoman Period.

According to its epitaph , it was built by Hacı Özbek, son of Muhammed in 1332-1333. It has a square shape and is covered by a brick-made dome located on a twelve-corner pulley. Originally, it is a small mosque with a porticco courtyard that has two columns in front of it. The current status of the mosque was exposed during the arrangements conducted on İznik Road in 1959. As a result of the arrangements, the porticco courtyard in the western direction was demolished and instead of it, a new porticco courtyard having three opening directions was built in the north part of the main space.

As a result of the restoration works initiated in October 2000, the cover coat, walls, windows and doors were repaired. The structure that was built during the initial years of the foundation of the Ottoman Beylik(Principality) is one of the pioneers of the Turkish religious architecture.