Peytier - The Fethiye Mosque with the Tower of the Winds

The Fethiye Mosque (; , "Mosque of the Conquest") is a 17th-century Ottoman mosque in central

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Repurposed after Greek independence in 1834, it fell into disrepair, but after renovations it was reopened to the public in 2017 and is presently being used for cultural exhibitions.

History

The Fethiye Mosque is located on the northern side of the ancient

Roman Agora The Roman Agora () is a ruined agora in Athens built Greece in the Roman era, in the Roman era to the east of the Ancient Agora of Athens, Ancient Agora and the north of the Acropolis of Athens, Acropolis. History The Roman Agora was built ar ...

, near the

Tower of the Winds The Tower of the Winds, known as the in Greek, and by #Names, other names, is an octagonal Pentelic marble tower in the Roman Agora in Athens, named after the eight large reliefs of wind gods around its top. Its date is uncertain, but was compl ...

, and was built on the ruins of a Christian

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

from the middle

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

period (8th/9th centuries). The Christian church was converted into a mosque in 1456/58, soon after the Ottoman conquest of the

Duchy of Athens The Duchy of Athens (Greek language, Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan language, Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during ...

, to coincide with the visit to the city by Sultan

Mehmed the Conqueror Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

in 1458. Only a fragment of the ''

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

'' survives from this mosque, which was demolished and replaced by the present structure between 1668 and 1670. The new mosque comprises a porch and a large rectangular main hall, crowned by a dome supported by four pillars. The central dome is flanked by half-domes on each side, and by smaller domes on each corner. The porch is supported by five arches, each crowned by a small dome, resting on masonry on the sides and four pillars in the middle. During Ottoman times, it was commonly known as the "Wheatmarket Mosque" (Τζαμί του Σταροπάζαρου). During the brief occupation of the city by the Venetian forces in the

Morean War The Morean war (), also known as the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War, was fought between 1684–1699 as part of the wider conflict known as the "Great Turkish War", between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Military operations ranged ...

(October 1687 – May 1688), the mosque was converted by the Venetians into a Catholic church, dedicated to

Dionysius the Areopagite Dionysius the Areopagite (; ''Dionysios ho Areopagitēs'') was an Athenian judge at the Areopagus Court in Athens, who lived in the first century. A convert to Christianity, he is venerated as a saint by multiple denominations. Life As rel ...

. Following the outbreak of the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

, in 1824 the disused mosque was used as a school by the '' Filomousos Eteria'' of Athens. At about the same time, or shortly after the end of the war, the mosque's minaret was torn down. From 1834, after Greek independence, and until the early 20th century, it was used successively as a barracks, a military prison and finally as a military bakery, at which point additions were made to the building to house the bakery's kilns. From the early 20th century it is used mostly as a storage place for various finds from the excavations in the Agora and the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens (; ) is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several Ancient Greek architecture, ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, ...

. Except for the removal of recent additions and the restoration to its original shape in 1935, the mosque has never undergone a complete restoration, and by 2010 had developed serious structural problems. In autumn 2010, the Greek Ministry of Culture ordered the emptying of the building from the various antiquities stored there, and the beginning of the process to restore it and open it to the public. The decision was sanctioned by Greece's Central Archaeological Council in 2013, paving the way for its restoration and its opening to the public as a space for cultural events. Following extensive restoration and renovation, the mosque was reopened to the public in 2017, and cultural exhibitions are held there.

History

See also

References

Further reading