The minaret
A balcony over the port.
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The Carol I Mosque, known today as the Grand Mosque of Constanța, stands in the old town of Constanța on Romania's Black Sea coast, close to the port. The city's Muslims call it the King's Mosque, and it is listed as a historic monument. King Carol I of Romania commissioned it in 1910. The cornerstone was laid on 24 June 1910 in the presence of Romania's minister of religious affairs and the Ottoman ambassador in Bucharest; building, funded by the Romanian government, was finished in 1912, and the king inaugurated it on 31 May 1913. It stands on the site of the Mahmudia Mosque of 1822. The designer, George Constantinescu, modelled it on a mosque in Konya, mixing Neo-Egyptian and Neo-Byzantine styles, and it was the first building in Romania made with reinforced concrete. The portal is of Dobruja stone, the door of black marble inlaid with bronze, and the interior columns of Câmpulung marble. The Neo-Moorish minaret rises 47 metres, and the dome is 25 metres high and 8 metres across. Visitors step into the prayer hall to see the blue and gold painted dome, the mihrab and the minbar, and some climb the minaret to its balcony over the old town and the port. It is still a place of prayer, so respect prayer times and dress modestly.
A balcony over the port.
Blue and gold.
Marble and bronze.
Old Town, Constanța, Romania
Yes, to its balcony.
Modest clothing.
