Aziziye Mosque in Tulcea

The Aziziye Mosque, also called the Mosque of Sultan Abdulaziz, stands at 2 Independenței Street, in the centre of Tulcea, a few hundred metres from the Danube waterfront and the Art Museum. It is the main place of worship of the town's Muslim community. The mosque was built when Tulcea was part of the Ottoman Empire, under Sultan Abdulaziz (1861-1876), regarded as its founder, hence its name. The List of Historic Monuments dates it to 1863, while the bilingual Turkish and Romanian plaque next to the entrance gives the year 1865. The building was restored in 1970. The carpets were donated from Turkey, and the present minaret was built with the support of the Republic of Turkey. The building has a single prayer hall, built of stone, brick and timber, with a high step at the entrance where worshippers leave their shoes. Next to it rises the minaret, 25 m high and 3.55 m in diameter, clearly visible from the Danube and the waterfront. Visitors follow the rules of a Muslim place of worship: shoes are left at the entrance and dress should be modest. The Aziziye Mosque is a category A historic monument, LMI code TL-II-m-A-05984. Did you know that the date of the mosque is written on its own wall? The plaque by the door says, in Turkish and in Romanian, that the mosque was "built in the time of Sultan Abdulaziz", in 1865, while the List of Historic Monuments gives the year 1863.