The first Ottoman capital, spread across the lower slopes of Uludağ — "Yeşil Bursa", green and historic, where the dynasty's earliest mosques and tombs still stand.
Last reviewed on 3 June 2026.
Bursa is the fourth-largest city in Türkiye and one of its most historically significant, even if its reputation today often rests on cars, textiles and a ski resort. It was the first major capital of the Ottoman state, taken in 1326, and the place where the dynasty's earliest sultans built and were buried before the centre of power moved on to Edirne and then Istanbul. Locals call it Yeşil Bursa — Green Bursa — for the gardens, plane trees and forested slopes that climb behind it towards Uludağ, the high mountain that shelters the city from the south. It is an industrial place with a deep historic core, and that core is more often passed over than it should be.
The reason to come to Bursa is the concentration of early-Ottoman architecture, built when the style was still forming and before it had absorbed the Byzantine grandeur of Istanbul. The anchor is the Ulu Cami, the Grand Mosque, completed at the start of the fifteenth century. Its plan is unusual and memorable: a broad rectangular hall covered by twenty domes carried on twelve pillars, rather than the single great dome that later mosques would chase. The interior is famous for its monumental calligraphy — enormous painted and inscribed panels of Qur'anic verse and the names of God and the early caliphs — and for the şadırvan, an ablution fountain set under an opening in the roof, in the middle of the prayer hall itself rather than in a courtyard outside.
A short way east, on a hill above the city, stands the Yeşil Cami — the Green Mosque — and the Yeşil Türbe, the Green Tomb, both named for the turquoise and green İznik tilework that gives them their colour. The tomb holds Sultan Mehmed I, and the tiled mihrab and panels inside the mosque are among the finest early examples of the İznik tradition that would later decorate Istanbul. The two buildings sit within a wider complex that once included a religious school and a soup kitchen, the standard components of an Ottoman foundation.
The city is also where the founders of the dynasty lie. The tombs of Osman, who gave the Ottomans their name, and his son Orhan, who took Bursa and made it the capital, stand together in the old citadel district of Tophane, on the bluff overlooking the plain. They are modest in scale beside the great imperial mausoleums of later centuries, which is part of their interest: this is the dynasty before it became an empire. Several more mosque-and-tomb complexes — the Muradiye, the Emir Sultan, the Yıldırım Bayezid — are scattered across the older neighbourhoods, each pairing a place of worship with the tombs of a sultan and his household.
The Grand Mosque: twenty domes on twelve pillars, monumental calligraphy, and an indoor ablution fountain. The civic centre of the old city.
The Green Mosque and Green Tomb on the eastern hill, named for their İznik tilework. Mehmed I is buried in the tomb.
The dynasty's founders, buried in the old citadel above the plain — modest, and all the more striking for it.
A quieter mosque with a cluster of tiled royal tombs in a garden setting, a little west of the centre.
Bursa grew rich on silk. It sat at the western end of the overland trade that carried raw silk and cloth out of Asia, and for centuries it was one of the great silk markets of the eastern Mediterranean, both a producer and a clearing house. That history is still legible in the commercial quarter around the Ulu Cami, a dense knot of covered streets and trading courts that has functioned continuously for hundreds of years.
The covered bazaar — the Kapalı Çarşı — is the everyday version: jewellers, cloth merchants, towel and textile shops, and the usual run of household goods. The set piece is the Koza Han, the silk-cocoon caravanserai, a two-storey arcaded court built around a small mosque and a fountain, with a plane-tree-shaded courtyard that is now full of tea tables. Koza means cocoon; this was where the silk-cocoon harvest was brought to be traded, and a seasonal cocoon market is still held here. The surrounding hans — the Pirinç Han, the Fidan Han and others — were the warehouses and lodging-houses of that trade, and several have been restored as cafés and shops. Bursa's place on the Silk Road is not an abstraction here; it is the structure of the streets.
On the eastern edge of the city, where the suburbs give way to the lower slopes of Uludağ, sits Cumalıkızık, a preserved Ottoman village of narrow cobbled lanes and timber-framed houses in faded ochre, red and blue. It was founded as one of a cluster of village endowments supporting the early-Ottoman foundations in the city, and because it stayed a working agricultural settlement rather than being absorbed and rebuilt, much of its early fabric survives. Today it is partly given over to weekend visitors — breakfast spots, fruit-preserve sellers, craft stalls — but the houses and the layout are the real thing.
Cumalıkızık is inscribed, together with Bursa's principal early-Ottoman monuments — the Ulu Cami, the Orhan Gazi and other mosque complexes, the hans, and the citadel district — as a single UNESCO World Heritage Site recognising the birth of the Ottoman urban tradition. The listing ties together the village and the city as two halves of the same story: the religious and commercial core, and the rural endowments that funded it.
Behind the city rises Uludağ, the "Great Mountain", one of the higher peaks of western Anatolia and a national park on its upper slopes. It is the easiest way to swap the city for the open air, and there are two ways up. A long cable car — the Teleferik — climbs from the southern edge of Bursa towards the high plateau in stages, and is worth riding for the views over the city and the plain even if you do nothing else at the top. The road up is the alternative, winding through forest to the resort area.
In winter the high zone becomes the country's best-known ski resort, popular with day-trippers and weekenders from Istanbul as much as for the snow itself. In the warmer months the same area is for walking: forest paths, alpine meadows, glacial lakes higher up, and cool air that is a relief when the city below is hot. The mountain is genuinely part of Bursa's appeal, but it is one part of a longer visit, not a reason to skip the city.
Bursa sits on thermal springs, and the district of Çekirge, on the western side of the city, grew up around them. There are historic Ottoman hammams here fed by the hot mineral water, some of them centuries old and still in use, alongside more modern thermal hotels. A bath in Çekirge is a long-standing local tradition rather than a tourist invention, and the combination of mineral springs and Ottoman bathing architecture is unusual to find together.
The food is reason enough on its own. Bursa is the home of the İskender kebab — thin slices of döner laid over pieces of pide bread, soaked in tomato sauce and melted butter and served with yoghurt. It was created here, and the city takes the dish seriously; eating it in Bursa is a small pilgrimage for many Turkish visitors. The other local specialities lean sweet: kestane şekeri, candied chestnuts, made from the chestnuts of the surrounding hills, and the Bursa peach, the variety the region is known for. Between the kebab houses, the chestnut shops and the tea tables of the Koza Han, the city rewards an unhurried appetite.
Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons in the city itself — warm but not heavy, with the gardens and slopes living up to the "green" name. Summer is hot on the plain, though Uludağ offers an easy escape upward into cooler air. Winter is the ski season on the mountain, and the city below can be cold and grey, but the mosques and bazaars are indoor pleasures that work in any weather. If your main interest is the early-Ottoman core rather than the snow, the shoulder seasons are the clear choice.
Bursa lies on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara, close enough to Istanbul to be tantalising and far enough to need planning. The pleasant way is by sea: a fast ferry crosses the Marmara from Istanbul to Mudanya, the port on Bursa's coast, from where it is a short road transfer into the city. The alternative is the intercity bus, which goes the long way round the bay by motorway. The small Yenişehir airport east of the city handles limited flights, but most visitors arrive overland or by ferry rather than by air.
Within the city, the historic sights divide between the central commercial quarter — Ulu Cami, the bazaar and the hans, all walkable together — and the outlying complexes and the cable-car base, which are better reached by tram, bus or taxi. The Green Mosque hill, Çekirge and the Uludağ Teleferik are each a short ride from the centre rather than a walk.
Yes, particularly if you have an interest in Ottoman history. It was the dynasty's first major capital, and its early mosques, founders' tombs and silk-trade hans are among the best-preserved examples of early-Ottoman architecture anywhere. The mountain, the thermal baths and the food round out a city that is more than its industrial reputation suggests.
The most pleasant route is the fast ferry across the Sea of Marmara to Mudanya, Bursa's port, followed by a short road transfer into the city. The alternative is the intercity bus, which takes the longer motorway route around the bay. A small airport at Yenişehir handles limited flights, but most travellers come by sea or road.
Bursa is the birthplace of the İskender kebab — sliced döner over pide bread with tomato sauce, melted butter and yoghurt. It is also known for kestane şekeri, candied chestnuts made from the chestnuts of the surrounding hills, and for the Bursa peach. The tea tables of the Koza Han are the classic spot for a break between sights.
It is possible but tight. The Marmara ferry crossing and transfers consume much of the day in each direction, leaving only a few hours in the city. That is enough for one or two mosques and lunch, but not for the bazaar, the mountain and the wider early-Ottoman core. An overnight stay is far more rewarding.
Winter is the ski season on Uludağ, the mountain above the city, which is the country's best-known ski resort and an easy ride up by cable car or road. Down in the city, the mosques, the covered bazaar and the hans are indoor pleasures that work in any weather, and the thermal hammams of Çekirge are at their most welcome in the cold.