Ancient Nicaea,
now called İznik, is a farming town surrounded by massive medieval
walls set on the shore of a broad lake 63 km (39 miles)
southeast of Yalova.
Two
Christian ecumenical councils were held here, the 1st in 325, and the
7th in 787.
The Hagia
Sophia Church right at the city center was the scene of the 7th council.
In
1331, Orhan Gazi had it converted to a mosque.
In the reign of
Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, the sultan's great architect, Mimar Sinan,
made some additions and modifications to improve its function as a house of worship.
Badly ruined
sometime thereafter (perhaps by earthquakes), it was restored to its former
shape beginning in 2007, and re-opened as a mosque in November 2011,
which means you can now enter and get a good idea of the building's earlier
Byzantine form.
İznik's Green
Mosque (Yeşil Cami) is a fine Seljuk Turkish-influenced work. Across the
street is an ottoman imaret (soup kitchen) that now houses the city's
good museum.
--by Tom Brosnahan, Turkey Travel Planner -- the best travel website on the internet
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