Tombul Mosque

About this place

The Tombul Mosque, officially the Sherif Halil Pasha Mosque, is the largest mosque in Bulgaria and one of the largest in the Balkans, in the city of Shumen in the northeast of the country. Its name comes from the rounded shape of its dome, and it was listed as a cultural monument of national importance in 1975. Building began in 1740 in the Ottoman period, paid for by Sherif Halil Pasha, who was born in the village of Madara 17 km east of Shumen. The mosque once stood in the old town centre; as the city grew, it ended up in the southwest. The complex covers 1,730 square metres, with the prayer hall, an open courtyard centred on a domed water fountain, and a twelve-room wing that housed madrasa students. Its style follows the Ottoman Tulip Period, which blended in elements of French Baroque. The hall rises from a 15-metre square base through an octagon to a circle, topped by a spherical dome 25 metres high; worshippers enter through a vestibule of tall arches under five small domes, and four massive marble columns carry the roof. Visitors step into the courtyard and then the prayer hall to see the dome painted with coloured ornament and Arabic calligraphy, and the stained glass in its upper rows of windows. It is still a place of prayer, so respect prayer times and dress modestly.