The mosque carries the name of Rüstem Paşa, the Ottoman vizier who served fifteen years as grand vizier under Süleyman the Magnificent. It was built by Sinan between 1550 and 1560.
The complex Sinan raised for Rüstem Paşa at Sapanca — mosque, soup kitchen, bath and caravanserai — is among the important sixteenth-century works to have come down to us.
The mosque changed over time and was built a second time in the year 1146 of the Rumi calendar. A newly written inscription on its side front reads that the mosque was built in 1554.
It is roofed in timber and tiles. Its walls are low, and the building is of mudbrick and wood together. The site covers 750 square metres and the interior 250, and the mosque holds twelve hundred people.
The road is asphalt and the mosque can be visited in any season.
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).
