Green dome
Copper on an octagonal drum.
Zairon — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Elekes Andor — CC BY 4.0 · Lajos Gál — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 3.0
The Mosque of Pasha Qasim is a green-domed Ottoman building at the highest point of Széchenyi Square, the main square in the centre of Pécs in southern Hungary. It is one of the largest Ottoman buildings left in Hungary, a symbol of the city, and today serves as a Catholic church. Pasha Qasim built the mosque in the 16th century, after Pécs came under Ottoman rule in 1543, and it served as a mosque through the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 1660s the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi wrote in praise of the view from the mosque. It became a church in 1702, and its minaret was taken down in 1766. The building keeps many Ottoman features: a square stone mass topped by an octagonal drum and a large dome sheathed in green copper, with arched windows in two rows on the facades. Inside, Ottoman decoration and inscriptions of verses from the Qur'an are clearly visible in the surviving plaster, and the mihrab, once removed, has been put back. Visitors stand in the square to take in the dome and facades, then step inside to see the Qur'anic inscriptions and the mihrab. It sits at the heart of the city, so it is easy to combine with a walk around Széchenyi Square and the old streets nearby.
Copper on an octagonal drum.
In the plaster.
Put back in place.
Széchenyi Square, central Pécs, Hungary
Yes; it is a working church, so respect service times.
Qur'anic inscriptions and the mihrab.
