Sokollu Mehmed Pasha - Heritage and Legacy

Heritage and Legacy

Sokollu Mehmed Pasha has left numerous architecturally well known buildings in Constantinople and in Ottoman lands of his day. A few of the most noteworthy can be cited here.

Sokollu Mehmed Paşa Mosque and the complex built at Kadirga district of İstanbul by architect Mimar Sinan is considered to be the most beautiful of the smaller mosques in İstanbul . It is well known for unusually fine ordering of medrese (cells and lecture hall) over the entry stairs; for its lofty elegant interior; the first (but then well-copied) hooded fountain; ogival arches of the arcades; but above all the fine and well deservedly famed Iznik tiles. In İstanbul at Azapkapi district he also has another mosque, also known as the Azapkapi Mosque, built by Sinan in 1577-1578, which is called most important Ottoman monument in Galata. In Eyub district of İstanbul, there is the Sokollu Mehmed Paşa Kulliyesi again built by Sinan c.1572, which is a complex including a medrese, a school and his tomb. On the main highway between the two Ottoman capitals of İstanbul and Edirne, at Luleburgaz there is well-known Sokollu Mehmed Paşa Complex of a caravanserai, bathhouse, mosque, madrasah, a school, market streets and private apartments for Sultan's use (when it became a palace) built in 1549 and extended at 1569, both times by Sinan. He has further complexes built at Havsa, a city on the Istanbul-Edirne highway and in Payas, in southern Turkey near Antakya. Again, built by Sinan and known by the name of Sokollu Mehmed Paşa are the bridges at Alpullu, Luleburgaz and Corlu. There are in Havsa, Yesildirek (İstanbul), Edirne and Luleburgaz public bathhouses that were built by Sinan in the name Sokollu Mehmed Paşa. Another mosque that he issued and was built by Mimar Sinan was the Black Mosque in Sofia, during the years when he was governor of Rumelia. The black mosque was converted to a church (in the 19th century) but most of its body is exemplarious of Mimars Sinan's style.

His most renowned endowment is an eleven-arched bridge in his home town Višegrad. Building and history of the Višegrad bridge is the topic of the world renowned novel The Bridge on the Drina (Serbo-Croatian: Na Drini ćuprija - На Дрини ћуприја), written by Ivo Andrić, a Yugoslav novelist For that novel, Andrić was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. His life also interested Meša Selimović. There were numerous Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian legends on the bridge's construction. According to one, Mehmed Paşa built the bridge in his son's name. Another is present through Ivo Andrić's "Bridge on the Drina". It tells the tale of Rade the Architect who built the bridge.

In his native village of Sokolovići he has built a mosque, maktab and musafirhana (guest house). His foundations are spread over Edirne, Halep, Medina, Bečkerek, Belgrade and alongside Bosnia, where he is especially remembered for his bridges. Mecca and Constantinople contained numerous mosques alone. Apart from the Višegrad bridge, Arslanagić bridge in Trebinje, Vizier's bridge in Podgorica, the bridge on Žepa and Kozja ćuprija in Sarajevo are attributed to his name. Between Višegrad and Sarajevo, on Glasinac, he built a Road of four paces and a castle. Of the castle, only a drinking-fountain remained – the Mehmed Sokolović's han.