Çapanoğlu Mosque
Capanoğlu Mosque is in a central part of the city, near Cumhuriyet Square, in Istanbulluoğlu neighborhood. The building, which is popularly known as the Great Mosque or Ulucami, is one of the important examples of the Turkish architectural style in Anatolia, which emerged under the influence of Europe during the Ottoman Empire Period.
The first part of the mosque, which was built on two separate dates, is called the "inside mosque", and the part that was built later is called the "outside mosque".
The section, called the mosque inside and constituting the southern part of the building, was built in 1193 (1779) by Çapanoğlu Mustafa Bey, the governor of Bozok sanjak, according to the inside inscription on the middle door of the harim. The place, which was added to this section from the north and called "outside mosque", was built in 1208 (1793-94) by Mustafa Bey's brother, Süleyman Bey, as can be understood from the inscription on the door opening to the present entrance portico.
The four sides of the mosque are surrounded by a courtyard wall. In 1964, a third door was added to the north side of the monumental arched doors on the east and west sides of the courtyard. Intense hand-drawn decorations are seen in the mosque. There are marble imitation paintings on the inside mosque and outside mosque's sanctuary walls, upper walls, arch arches and abdomens.
The ornaments made with curved branches, leaves, flowers and fruit depictions inside the main dome and pendentives of the outside mosque (the triangular corner in the form of a spherical piece that closes the gap between the arches carrying the dome and the base of the dome and provides the passage from the square plan to the circular base of the dome) are striking.
The first portal of the building, which is at the entrance to the main harem from the outer mosque, created a rich and magnificent composition. Acanthus leaves, C and S folds, seashell motifs crown the mihrab. The pulpit, on the other hand, is decorated like a jewel with colorful veined marbles and various shapes including baroque motifs.
It is a small domed structure made of white cut stone that protrudes from the main walls at the northeast corner where the inner and outer mosques meet. The tomb is entered through a round arched door that opens into the outer mosque. There are 18 sarcophagi of various sizes in the building. These sarcophagi belong to the Çapanoğlu family and the Yozgat gentry.
