The Orhan Mosque in Adapazarı carries a name much older than the building. The account given is that when Konuralp, a companion of Orhan Gazi, took Akyazı and the small castles on either side of the Sakarya, he settled a number of Turkmens in this wooded and well-watered country, a village was founded where the city now stands, and a mosque was built there in Orhan Bey's name. That building fell down in time, and the mosque that carries the name today was built in 1893-94 through the efforts of Nuzhet Pasha, the district governor of Adapazarı, with contributions from local people.
The present mosque was built in the tall-windowed manner of the reign of Abdülhamid II, roofed rather than domed, and is probably larger than the building it replaced; the date 1316/1318 on the minaret records that second construction. The roof is timber under tiles, and there is a single minaret. That minaret collapsed in the earthquake of 1967 and was rebuilt in 1968 by a master called Ali Akyuz of Akyazı, and it was restored again after the earthquake of 1999. The mosque is on Bankalar Caddesi.
Getting there
- Access
- Two kilometres from the city centre; city transport reaches it.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Sakarya as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.3 °C in January to 23.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (106 mm) and lightest in August (48 mm). Long-term means for 1951-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
