Rating
4.5/5 (based on Google user reviews)
User Reviews
Gül Mosque (Gül Camii, meaning 'Rose Mosque') in Istanbul, Turkey, is a former Byzantine church later converted by the Ottomans.
Scholars dispute its origins, with some linking it to the Nunnery of Saint Theodosia and others to the Monastery of Christ the Benefactor. The 15th-century traveler Stephan Gerlach identified it as Hagia Theodosia, but later research suggests it dates to the 12th-century Komnenian period and may have been the Monastery of Christos Euergetēs.
During the Byzantine era, the church was associated with St. Theodosia, a nun martyred in 729 for opposing Iconoclasm. Over time, she became a revered figure, and the church, originally dedicated to St. Euphemia, was later named after her. Built during Basil I’s reign, it was looted during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. After the Ottoman conquest in 1453, the church, adorned with roses at the time, was converted into Gül Mosque. A minaret was added during Selim II’s reign, and earthquakes caused significant damage, leading to restorations under Murad IV and Mahmud II.
The mosque has a Greek cross-plan with a high vaulted basement and five domes, the central one being an Ottoman addition. The exterior features the recessed-brick technique typical of Byzantine architecture, while the apse, galleries, and side chapels resemble those of the Pantokrator Monastery. The mihrab was placed in the former main apse. A small chamber inside is believed to house the tomb of Gül Baba, an Ottoman holy man, though it may have originally belonged to St. Theodosia.
Among Istanbul’s surviving Byzantine churches, Gül Mosque remains a significant example of cross-in-square architecture.
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.