Sultan Mahmud I commissioned the mosque in 1748, and it was completed in 1755 under his brother Osman III, whose name it carries. Simeon Kalfa designed it and was the first non-Muslim architect placed in charge of a major imperial Ottoman project. Most of the stonemasons were Christian.
The article calls it the first monumental Ottoman building in the Ottoman Baroque style, blending European Baroque and neoclassical elements. Curved pediments and carved friezes replace pointed arches and muqarnas. It is built of cut stone and marble with iron bracing to the dome. The dome rises 143 feet (43.5 m) and is about 82 feet (25 m) across, the third-largest historic dome in Istanbul. The horseshoe-shaped courtyard was unprecedented in Ottoman mosques.
The complex includes an oval library, a tomb, a madrasa and soup kitchen, and a sebil. The west gate faces the Grand Bazaar, and the mosque is still used for daily worship.
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