The Bostancılar Tabhanesi Mosque, also known as the Yedekçiler Mosque, which disappeared from Istanbul’s historic skyline around 70 years ago, is being restored in the city’s Sarayburnu district.
Built during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to serve sick palace gardeners, the mosque was located outside the sea walls of Topkapı Palace, between Sarayburnu and Ahırkapı. It was demolished during coastal road development works in the 1950s.
Restoration efforts led by Fatih Municipality aim to return the structure to Istanbul as part of the city’s historical and cultural heritage.
For centuries, the mosque served as a place of prayer and formed part of daily life around the Ottoman palace. Its history also reflects the changes to Istanbul’s historic landscape over the decades.
Urban development projects carried out between 1956 and 1960, which altered Sarayburnu’s coastline and urban fabric, permanently transformed not only the area’s transport network but also its historic skyline.
Academic studies have also identified the mosque among the structures that disappeared from the coastline during this period and whose former locations have been traced through historical photographs.
Bostancılar Tabhanesi Mosque was the only mosque located immediately outside Istanbul’s sea walls, Fatih Mayor Mehmet Ergun Turan told Anadolu Agency (AA).
"When crossing over to this side from Üsküdar or by sea, this was the first mosque whose minaret came into view. However, the structure began falling into disrepair in the 1930s. Its minaret was demolished in the 1940s. By the 1950s and 1960s, when the coastal road was built, the mosque had completely disappeared,” he said.
"Today, we are delighted to restore this mosque to Istanbul’s skyline, perhaps nearly 100 years later. We have photographs of it in numerous documents, its location is marked on maps, and it appears in engravings.”
Aiming to restore all works of ancestral heritage, he said: "We do not use public funds to build any of the mosques we restore. They are funded by donors. So far, we have completed the reconstruction of eight mosques. We are currently working on the restoration of 10 similar mosques.”
