Pope Leo visits Blue Mosque in Turkiye’s Istanbul

The pope is visiting Turkiye until Sunday connected his archetypal overseas travel arsenic pontiff, which besides includes a sojourn to Lebanon.

Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque connected the third time of his travel to Turkiye, his archetypal known sojourn arsenic person of the Catholic Church to a Muslim spot of worship.

The archetypal US pope bowed somewhat earlier entering the mosque aboriginal connected Saturday and was led connected a circuit of the expansive complex, capable to clasp 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3Pope Leo begins archetypal overseas travel arsenic Catholic person successful Turkiye, Lebanon
• list 2 of 3Pope Leo warns ‘future of humanity is astatine stake’ during Turkiye visit
• list 3 of 3Pope Leo XIV begins Turkiye sojourn with prayers and unity message

Leo, walking successful achromatic socks, smiled during the 20-minute sojourn and joked with 1 of his guides, the mosque’s pb muezzin – the authoritative who leads the regular calls to prayer.

“He wanted to spot the mosque, helium wanted to consciousness the ambiance of the mosque, and helium was precise pleased,” Askin Tunca, the Blue Mosque’s muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters.

Pope Leo XIV visits the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque), successful Istanbul connected November 29, 2025 [AFP]

Tunca said aft the mosque sojourn that helium asked Leo during the circuit if helium wished to commune for a moment, but the pope said helium preferred to conscionable sojourn the mosque.

The Vatican said successful a connection instantly aft the sojourn that Leo undertook the circuit “in a tone of reflection and listening, with heavy respect for the spot and for the religion of those who stitchery determination successful prayer”.

While Leo did not look to commune during the tour, helium did gag with Tunca. As the radical was leaving the building, the pope noticed helium was being guided retired a doorway that is usually an entryway, wherever a motion says: “No exit.”

“It says nary exit,” Leo said, smiling. Tunca responded: “You don’t person to spell out, you tin enactment here.”

The pope is visiting Turkiye until Sunday connected his archetypal overseas travel arsenic pontiff, which besides includes a sojourn to Lebanon.

Leo, a comparative unknown on the satellite signifier earlier becoming pope successful May, is being intimately watched arsenic helium makes his archetypal speeches overseas and interacts for the archetypal clip with radical extracurricular chiefly Catholic Italy.

The Blue Mosque is officially named for Sultan Ahmed I, person of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617, who oversaw its construction. It is decorated with thousands of blue ceramic tiles, the ground of its fashionable name.

Unlike his predecessors, Leo did not sojourn the adjacent Hagia Sophia, the legendary sixth-century basilica built during the Byzantine Empire, which was converted into a mosque nether the Ottoman Empire, past became a depository nether Turkiye’s recently established republic.

But successful 2020, the UNESCO World Heritage tract was converted backmost into a mosque successful a determination that drew planetary condemnation, including from the precocious Pope Francis who said helium was “very saddened”.