Ottoman mosque · 16th c. · tiled minaret
A 16th-century mosque on Magnolia Square with rare tiled minaret bands, now used as an exhibition space.
These are the stories you can open in the 3D view, each at its own numbered point on the model.
This is the Yeni Mosque, the “New Mosque”, on the east side of Magnolia Square. It was founded by Kadi Mahmud Efendi, although some sources give his name as Mehmed.
The founding date is read from a chronogram, and the readings differ. The year 1558/59 is given most often; other readings range from 1552 to about 1565. Either way, the “new” mosque is well over 450 years old.
The prayer hall is a single square room, 12.78 m wide inside and about 15.5 m outside, built of yellowish stone. Above it, lead-covered slopes lead up to an octagonal drum pierced by arched windows, and the lead dome reaches about 19 m.
With the drum, the hall has four rows of windows, so the room under the dome is full of daylight.
The minaret rises 39 to 40 m on the south-west side of the hall. Look for the bands of glazed tiles in cobalt blue and turquoise, in the İznik style. Each tile is about 25 by 25.5 cm.
Tiles on a minaret are rare in North Macedonia. Higher up, the carved balcony, the şerefe, sits on rows of stalactite-like muqarnas, and a tall lead cone ends in a gilded finial.
The porch in front of the entrance is younger than the mosque. In 1890–91 the builder Pavle Ristić from Smilevo rebuilt and enlarged it, and roofed it with six small lead domes in two rows of three.
It measures about 14.2 by 10 m and rests on marble columns, which are hidden today because the porch is closed in with walls, windows and a central door.
Excavations between 2004 and 2010 found the remains of older churches under the mosque, dated to the 7th, 11th and 13th centuries. The earliest is believed to have been dedicated to St George.
The finds show how long this ground beside the Dragor has been a place of worship, for one community after another.
Old nicknames keep old stories. The mosque was also called Nal Camisi, the “Horseshoe Mosque”, because hoofprints in its wall were said to belong to the horse of St George. Another nickname was Sinđirli Bunar, the “Chained Well”.
These are local traditions rather than recorded history, but they quietly link the mosque with the church that once stood on the same spot.
Prayers ended here in 1943. From the 1950s, with sources giving 1950 or 1957, the building served as an art gallery.
In 2024 a Turkish news report said it had reopened as a museum of Christian and Islamic cultural heritage, and maps now list it as a Museum of Christian and Muslim culture. The Islamic Community objected to this use.
About 86 m to the west stands the Clock Tower. Together the minaret and the tower mark the north end of Magnolia Square, where the Širok Sokak promenade begins.
The Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi described the mosque in 1661. A clock tower here is first recorded in 1664, and the present tower was built in the 1830s.
Typical prices are our estimates for orientation, not menu prices. Check opening hours on the spot.
Walk around the model, switch between day and night, and hear each story read aloud in English, Macedonian or Turkish.
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