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About the Djami

The 400-year-old Öziçeli Hacci Ibrahim Djami Mosque is a listed building in Berényi Zsigmond utca, Esztergom. It is known in the town as the old primate granary. This is the most distant, restored building of the former Turkish Empire in the north-easterly direction.

The Djami Mosque of Esztergom built between the castle wall on the bank of the Danube and the Castle Hill – unlike the general form of Djami Mosques – is a two-storey building with a rectangular-shaped layout and a hip roof. A medieval road passed through the bottom half of the building, which led to the neighbouring mill tower, the water-machine providing water for the castle, and led also to the gate looking onto the Danube. The ventillation-well deepened in the Castle Hill area has exposed the once functioning side entrance. The street front of the building today consists of one storey, however, to the west looking on Erzsébet park it has a two-storey facade. Its doors from the Turkish era are arched, with ogee-arch windows. The remains of a minaret can be found in the north-west corner of the building. This minaret was partially demolished in the 18th century. On the side of the building facing the Danube there opened the Small Gate (Küçük Gate), above which can be seen the victory tablet of Suleiman I, erected in 1543 when Esztergom was seized. The building houses the restored prayer-niche (mihrab). Fat bellied vessels were built into the walls with their mouths facing the mihrab so as to reduce echoing. During excavation barley grains were found in the jars, as the Djami Mosque was used as a granary afterwards.

The famous Turkish world-traveller Evliya Çelebi writes the following in 1663 about the Turkish tabernacle built by Öziçeli Hacci Ibrahim after 1605:
 „… The Djami Mosque of Öziçeli Hacci Ibrahim has roof leads, an attic of painted boards, is of a large volume. It is a high, newly built, fine Djami Mosque with a brick minaret…” which also had a dervish monastery and school (madrasah). He also noted that one of the gates of the Water Town, „…the Small Gate (Küçük Gate) under the Öziçeli Hacci Ibrahim Djami Mosque, opened westwards facing the Danube. A horse may enter through it, but a carriage cannot. Outside this gate the town has no houses, within the gate, the building can be found which houses a mechanism drawing water with wheels upwards into the inner castle.”
The archeological excavations and wall exploration performed in the building of the Djami Mosque have proved that the building standing here almost intact with its unique layout, is the originally two-storey Turkish Djami Mosque of the former Turkish Empire, which was built on the medieval town wall of the Water Town, above the gate.

Victory tablet of Suleiman I