Mosque of Sultan Mahmut II
- Historic monument category A; code LMI CT-II-m-A-02892
- Built in 1812
- Vadului Street, no. 8, Hârșova
The mosque was built in 1812, at the order of Sultan Mahmut II (1808-1839). As a strategic spot, in one of the most important Ottoman locations on the Danube shore (Hârșova), the mosque was meant to enhance the authority in the province, especially after, in 1812, the Ottoman Empire yielded Basarabia to the Russian Empire.
The mosque is made out of a tall, stone minaret, preserved in it’s initial shape, and cube shaped immobile, specific to muslim places of worship in Dobrogea, covered in tiles. The interior of the mosque and the minaret are original, the way they were designed at the beginning of the 19th century.
The mosque was set on fire in 1916, during the First World War, by the bulgarian troops that occupied Hârșova, and periodically restored over the last century.
