Guide
Hızırbey Mosque stands in the market area of central Kırklareli and was built in 1383 by Köse Mihalzade Hızır Bey. People here call it the Great Mosque, and it is still in use for prayer. The plan is square; the outer wall faces, the drum of the dome and the minaret are all regular cut kufeki stone, and close to a thousand people can pray in it at once. An earthquake damaged the mosque in 1824 and Aydoslu Hacı Yusuf Pasha repaired it; the rectangular porch, damaged in another earthquake, was rebuilt in 1887 by Tosunoglu Ali Efendi. The minaret, cut stone with a square shaft, a single balcony and a lead cap, was brought down to half its height during the Balkan War and rebuilt in 1937.
The mosque is an early Ottoman work, but the painted decoration inside is not. It is restrained, and it is thought to date entirely from the nineteenth-century repairs. A band of writing runs around the walls at the springing of the dome, a wide inscribed border crosses the mihrab wall, and thuluth inscriptions fill the window tympana, all painted white on a dark blue ground. The flower baskets, corded curtains and ribbons painted elsewhere are modest examples of the Baroque manner. The large-lettered inscriptions on the interior walls are known to have been written in 1308 by the calligrapher Tevfik of Kastamonu. The mosque is in the Karakaş quarter.
