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The Nuruosmaniye Mosque, an 18th-century Ottoman mosque in Istanbul’s Çemberlitaş neighborhood, was added to Turkey’s Tentative World Heritage Sites list in 2016. Designed by Greek architect Simeon Kalfa, it was the first major Ottoman structure to showcase the Ottoman Baroque style, incorporating European baroque and neoclassical influences. Its curved courtyard and ornate decoration reflect this shift in architectural tradition. The mosque's grand dome, among the largest in Istanbul, is part of a larger külliye that served as a cultural and religious hub.
Commissioned by Sultan Mahmud I in 1748 and completed by Sultan Osman III in 1755, the mosque was named 'The Light of Osman.' It marked a revival of the imperial tradition of sultans building monumental mosques. Located near the Grand Bazaar and the Column of Constantine, it replaced a smaller, deteriorating mosque after Sultan Mahmud I appropriated its waqf. His personal commitment to the project was celebrated in Ottoman writings, portraying it as a divinely inspired endeavor.
Structurally, the mosque features a 25.4-meter dome, supported by four massive arches and iron bracing, making it Istanbul’s third-largest historic dome after Hagia Sophia and Süleymaniye Mosque. The horseshoe-shaped courtyard, an innovation in Ottoman design, leads to an interior filled with golden Qur'anic calligraphy and intricate Baroque carvings. Its mixtilinear arches, fluted minbar, and uniquely shaped capitals distinguish it from earlier Ottoman architecture. The complex’s blend of Islamic and European elements reshaped Istanbul’s skyline, marking a definitive break from classical Ottoman style.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.