The Hacı Bayram Mosque stands on Cami-i Kebir Sokağı in Altınova, the sub-district centre of Ayvalık. Dating its inscription by the abjad reckoning puts its construction in 1490 or 1491.
The mosque is square in plan, flat-ceilinged inside and covered outside by a hipped roof. It is built of roughly dressed stone and brick, two courses of stone answered by three of brick. A glazed porch was added on the north front in later years.
The prayer hall is divided east to west by three round arches into two aisles parallel to the mihrab wall. The mihrab itself is unremarkable, and, as in many mosques of later years, a curtain was painted there in oils. The niche is framed on either side by a column, and gilded plant ornament in plaster relief is set above it.
Repairs have taken the mosque a long way from its original state. The prayer hall is lit by two tiers of windows; those above are smaller than those below and were turned into ovals during the repairs, though it is clear they once had round brick arches like the lower ones.
A cylindrical brick minaret with a single balcony was added at the south-east corner in 1957.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Balıkesir as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 4.9 °C in January to 25.7 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (87 mm) and lightest in August (5 mm). Long-term means for 1999-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
