Ortaköy: the mosque on the water, the bridge, and the best kumpir in Istanbul

Mosque built

1854–1856, for Sultan Abdülmecid I

Architects

Garabet and Nigoğayos Balyan — the Dolmabahçe family

Style

Neo-Baroque, unusually European for an Ottoman mosque

Famous for

The bridge-and-mosque view, kumpir and waffles

Best time

Late afternoon into the evening, when the bridge lights up

Market

Weekends, in the square behind the mosque

The mosque

Its proper name is the Büyük Mecidiye Camii, built for Sultan Abdülmecid I and completed around 1856. The architects were Garabet Balyan and his son Nigoğayos, of the Armenian family who designed much of imperial Istanbul in this period — including Dolmabahçe Palace, a short way down the same shore.

The style is Neo-Baroque and it is strikingly European compared with the classical Ottoman mosques of the old city. Where Süleymaniye is monumental and grave, Ortaköy is curved, ornamented and full of light: tall arched windows on all sides, positioned so that reflections off the Bosphorus move across the interior walls throughout the day. It is small, and it is meant to be charming rather than imposing.

It underwent a major restoration in the 2010s and is an active mosque, so the usual courtesies apply — shoulders and knees covered, hair covered for women, shoes off, and it closes to visitors at prayer times.

The photograph

The composition everybody comes for is taken from the small waterfront terrace to the left of the mosque as you face the water, with the minarets in the foreground and the 15 July Martyrs Bridge — still universally called the Bosphorus Bridge — sweeping across behind. Late afternoon gives you warm light on the stone; after dark the bridge is lit and changes colour, and the whole thing becomes something else entirely.

Kumpir, waffles and the square

Ortaköy is as much a social space as a monument. The square behind the mosque is lined with two things: kumpir stalls and waffle stalls, and neither is remotely traditional Turkish cuisine, and both are a very good time.

Kumpir is an enormous baked potato, split and mashed in its skin with butter and yellow cheese until it is glossy, then loaded with whatever you point at from a long counter — corn, olives, pickles, sausage, couscous, Russian salad, mayonnaise, ketchup. Ordering "a little of everything" produces a mountain. It is student food, it is delicious, and it costs very little.

The waffles are equally unsubtle: thick, hot, and buried under fruit, nuts and melted chocolate. At weekends a small art and craft market fills the surrounding lanes, students sit on the steps down to the water, and fishing boats knock against the wall.

Getting there and when to go

Ortaköy sits on the European shore between Beşiktaş and the first bridge, easily reached by taxi, bus or a walk along the shore from Beşiktaş. It is busiest at weekends, which is either the attraction or the problem depending on what you want. Weekday late afternoons are calm and lovely.

Every Bosphorus cruise passes directly in front of the mosque, and seeing it from the water — the angle it was designed for — is arguably better than seeing it from the square. On a private tailor-made Istanbul tour we often use Ortaköy as the end of an afternoon: mosque, kumpir, and the light going down over the bridge.

Ortaköy — frequently asked questions