These pictures are the result of a stroll I made, starting at the Ulu Camii, than along the main street onto the square where there is the city museum and the usual Atatürk on horseback (I think this square, like the one in Ankara, is called heykel, for "statue"), then uphill through some very ordinary neighbourhoods, crossing a rivelet, descending again.

This is the Hacılar Cami from 1467, not far from the museum, going uphill. Note the "false" front. A nice drinking fountain to the right must be much younger.

The present state of the mosque is the result of a restoration in 1953. The previous repairs, after the 1855 earthquake, were clumsy and had greatly altered the original features of the building; that was rectified in 1953. The mosque has a square prayer hall (9 x 9 m), which is preceded on the north side by a porch, 9 m wide and 4½ m deep. The building is covered by a dome, while the porch has a tall facade that hides the prayer hall and its dome, if you are standing in front of it; the mosque’s ‘kitabe’ (building inscription) is placed in the middle of the facade, above the middle arch.
Such porches-with-raised-front, which are open on their north side only (and generally having three arches) are not uncommon in the Ottoman architecture of the 15th and 16th century; in Bursa alone, at least eight other middle-sized mosques have the same striking characteristic.

It is reported that the mosque was built with money given by muslims from Bursa, who had gathered the financial means to go on pilgrimage to Mecca, but had to cancel their ‘haç’ for some reason. Hence the name of ‘Hacılar Camii’ = Mosque of the (almost) Pilgrims.

The fountain to the right dates from 1749 and displays the Turkish Baroque style.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Vakıf Abideler ve eski Eserler (volume III)’ - Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü, Ankara 1983
& Websites of ‘alanbaskanligi.bursa.bel.tr’ - ‘LiveinBursa.com’ and ‘mustafacambaz.com’ .