Taksim Mosque

A mosque on Taksim Square, opened in 2021 after five years of construction. The argument over it ran for almost a hundred years: a building on this site was already being discussed back in the 1950s, but the square remained a secular symbol of the republic, and every time the idea provoked protests. Construction began in 2017 and became part of a wider redevelopment of the square. The architecture deliberately avoids copying the classics: a dome on a high drum rises above the prayer hall, there are two minarets, the facade is faced in pale stone with large arches and stained glass, and beneath the building are an exhibition hall, a library and an underground car park. Capacity is around two and a half thousand people. The mosque stands opposite the Atatürk Cultural Centre, and it is this juxtaposition that is usually discussed: the two buildings read as statements of two different ideas of what the square ought to be.

On the map