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The Nuruosmaniye Mosque (Nuruosmaniye Camii) is an 18th-century Ottoman mosque located in the Çemberlitaş neighbourhood of Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2016 it was inscribed in the Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey. The dome of the mosque is extremely distinct, and the fourth largest in the city of Istanbul, behind the Hagia Sophia, Suleymaniye Mosque, and Faith Mosque, respectively. The Nuruosmaniye mosque is part of a much larger religious complex, or Külliye, acting as a beacon of culture, religion, education, and support for the neighborhood. It was also the first royal religious mosque of Istanbul that integrated both baroque and neoclassical elements in its construction.

Architecture
It is considered one of the finest examples of mosques in Ottoman-Baroque style built on one of the seven hills of Istanbul. Even if a controversy exists over the identity of the architect, it is generally agreed that the architect was Simeon Kalfa, a non-Muslim Greek. It was commissioned from the order of Sultan Mahmut I beginning in 1748 and completed by his brother and successor Sultan Osman III in 1755. It was named Nuruosmaniye Mosque, meaning "The light of Osman", after Osman III, but also because of the 174 windows which lets a lot of light inside the mosque's hall.

The prayer hall is covered by a single dome 25 m in diameter, it has two minarets with two balconies, which are unique in that the. The courtyard of the mosque is designed in the shape of a horse shoe, unique for Ottoman mosques at the time. The height of the dome is 43.50 m from the floor level. In the back-garden there is a Türbe (tomb) built for Shehsuvar Sultan, mother of Osman III, which also houses other royal family members. The other components of the complex are:


 * The sebil (fountain) is attached to the exterior wall of the compound, and was traditionally used for dispersing water to to public and for ablutions before prayer. It is currently used as a carpet store.
 * The Madrasa, (Islamic school) consisting of 20 domed rooms and one large classroom (dershane). Today it is used as a boarding school for followers of the Koran.
 * The imaret, or public soup kitchen.
 * The library, which today is part of the Süleymaniye library and contains personal collections of Mahmud I and Osman III with a total of 7,600 volumes of whom 5052 are manuscripts.

Location
The location of the complex is one of strategic importance and tale. The area in which the mosque was to be built is surrounded by many shops, businesses, and the Kapalıçarşı (Grand Bazar). Being such a prosperous and commercially active area, the Sultan knew it would be a convenient location for Muslims to attend prayer. It would also serve as a reminder to the people of the presence of the state and the Sultan during a time of political and economic misfortune. Ahmed Efendi tells a story of the Sultan being greeted by a spiritual old man, prior to the building of the complex, who cried, prayed for his health, and praised him for deciding to build a mosque on that specific piece of ground. It was after this incident that the Sultan purportedly decided to begin construction. The Nuruosmaniye mosque was built on the second hill of the historic Peninsula of Istanbul. The complex is also located just across the street from the Gate 1 entrance to the Kapalıçarşı (Grand Bazaar). The Column of Constantine, the historic Gazi Atik Ali Pasha Mosque, and the modern day Çemberlitaş rail station are all located directly south of the mosque within 400 meters.

Restoration
The complex has been re-decorated several times over the course of it's life, but a combination of environmental factors, lack of maintenance, air pollution, and original building flaws substantially degraded the state of the complex. As a result, from 2010-2012 a 20 million lira ($3.5 million USD) renovation campaign was conducted by FOM group architects. The most severe issue of the complex was one of water. The leaking domes were resealed with a close-to-original lead coating and applied in traditional fashion, the drainage systems were cleared of rubble and revamped, and the basements were renovated. The walls of the mosque and especially the minarets had been heavily blackened, and required sand blasting and pressure washing. Other components of the mosque such as marble, timber, iron, and glass were cut and replaced if severely deteriorated, but the goal of the campaign was to keep and preserve as much of the original structure as possible.

During the 2010-2012 restoration campaign, several discoveries were made that further the status of the mosque as an architectural achievement and historic site.


 * In the process of scraping old deteriorated laminar ornaments, even older hand drawn ornaments were found, preserved, and displayed alongside the current ornaments.
 * The discovery of an active 2,242 square meter cistern underneath the mosque, which by word of Foundations Istanbul Provincial Director İbrahim Özekinci required the removal of "420 trucks’ worth of slime from the cistern. Then the magnificent gallery, cistern and water gauge became visible. The Ottomans used a modern system according to contemporary earthquake regulations."
 * It was discovered that the mosque sits on an older structure that was built using a bored-pile foundation. The oldest bored-pile foundation in the history of Turkish architecture found to date.

Present-day use
The mosque is still used as a place of worship, and renovation efforts within the prayer hall and other active areas were expedited to allow for the quick return of visitors.

Madrese used as a boarding school

In 2018 the Yeditepe Biennial art exhibition utilized the storehouse of the complex to display works of art that showcased both traditional and modern Turkish art. The Biennial, which was organized under the auspices of the President of Turkey, selected locations in Istanbul of great historic importance.

Fungal study
Nuruosmaniye is one of the few mosques in the world to have been the site of a study with the objective of determining the types and concentration of fungi found on the carpets, walls, and prayer beads of a mosque. The study was conducted in 2015 by Marmara University, and published in 2017 by the Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology.