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Built in the 16th century by the legendary architect Mimar Sinan, Selimiye Mosque crowns the skyline of Edirne, the Ottoman capital before İstanbul. Recognized as Sinan’s “masterpiece,” the mosque exemplifies Ottoman architecture and urban planning with its surrounding külliye — a complex of educational and social buildings. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011.
Commissioned by Sultan Selim II in 1568 and completed in just seven years, the mosque showcases Sinan’s engineering genius. Its 85-meter minarets and massive dome (43m high, 31m wide) rest on eight grand columns, with fewer half-domes than earlier designs. Despite the structural challenge of large windows, Sinan achieved a luminous interior using careful planning.
Inside, the mosque dazzles with intricate marble work, İznik tiles featuring 101 tulip designs, and detailed ornaments — especially in the mihrab, minbar, and muezzin's mahfil.
Surrounding buildings include madrasas, a library, and a timekeeper’s house. The arasta (bazaar) supported the complex economically. Together, they reflect the Ottoman approach to combining worship, education, and community services.
Selimiye Mosque is not just a place of worship, but a symbol of art, faith, and innovation — a legacy that continues to inspire.
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.