Atik Valide Mosque
Late Ottoman mosque with a vast külliye — school, hospital, and caravanserai — on the Asian shore.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Atik Valide Mosque in Istanbul opens with Nurbanu Sultan concealing her husband's death in 1574 for twelve days while her son traveled toward the throne. It traces her disputed origins, possibly Venetian, captured as a girl on Paros and brought to the Ottoman court, and her rise as Valide Sultan commissioning Mimar Sinan's largest complex on the Asian shore. Look up at the dome she never lived to see finished.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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