For 563 years, Friday prayers have been performed on the grass in the open-air mosque

In the Kadırga Plateau within the borders of Özkürtün Town in the Kürtün district of Gümüşhane, people have been praying on the grass for 563 years in the open-air mosque where Fatih Sultan Mehmet Khan led the Friday prayer without a roof. Kadırga Plateau, located at an altitude of 2,200 meters from the sea level, is one of the rare areas where the pastoral culture is preserved, and thousands of citizens come every year to see the mosque without a dome and roof and to perform the Friday prayer.

563 years ago in the Kadırga Plateau in Gümüşhane, ordered to be built by Fatih Sultan Mehmet Khan, who visited his friend Kadir Ağa on his way to conquer Trabzon and prayed with his army, this open-roofed mosque, which has few examples in the world, hosts the congregation for Friday prayers in the summer months each year.

During the summer season, due to the public market established on Fridays, citizens from surrounding provinces, districts, villages, and plateaus flock to Kadırga, and pray the Friday prayer in the open-roofed mosque with a natural grass base and only walls around. Kadırga Plateau, named after Kadir Ağa and situated on the hillside of Kadirkaya where Kadir Ağa’s tomb is located, attracts intense demand in the summer months from the provinces of Gümüşhane, Trabzon, and Giresun.

Due to the Friday markets, which turn the plateau into a small town, there are many large and well-known tribes such as Şahmelik, Çatma, Minarlı, Oğuz, Aktaş, and Ören around the plateau. For centuries, on the third Friday of every July, a festival and transhumance are held in the plateau, where there are facilities for food, drinks, and accommodation such as hotels, restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, and greengrocers. Citizens entering the open-roofed mosque, which has a natural grass base, only walls, and two minarets, place their shoes on the walls before performing their prayers on the grass.

“It is rumored that it does not rain while praying here”

Osman Demirci, a resident of the plateau who has been praying in the open-roofed mosque since his childhood, said, “I have been doing business here with my parents in 1968, and since that day, I have never seen prayers not being held in this mosque. It is rumored that it does not rain while praying here, and it rains after the prayer. We know that Fatih Sultan Mehmet came here to visit his friend Kadir Ağa on his way to conquer Trabzon and performed prayers here. People come here from all over the world to pray. The most sacred place is the Kaaba, and there are those who rank this place second. Praying here, going to prostration as soon as the grass comes out of the ground, feeling it, gives value to the world. People yearn to come here and pray.”

“Praying here brings happiness like going to Hajj, Umrah”

Osman Yılmaz, who visited from Trabzon Şalpazarı, spoke of the peace that comes from praying in the open-roofed mosque and said, “I have been coming to this plateau for as long as I can remember. I was abroad, waiting to retire as soon as possible to return to the plateau. We prefer this mosque to pray every Friday. The reason is Fatih Sultan Mehmet and our ancestors who prayed here. Praying here brings happiness like going to Hajj, Umrah,” he said. Niyazi Kahraman, who said he has been praying in the open-roofed mosque for 50 years, stated, “I have been praying here for 50 years. It affects a person spiritually, and one finds peace.”