Liberation Mosque (), formerly the St. Mary's Cathedral or Holy Mother of God Church (), is located in the Tepebaşı district of

Şahinbey Şahinbey is a municipality and district of Gaziantep Province, Turkey. Its area is 960 km2, and its population is 941,055 (2022). It was named after Şahin Bey (1877–1920), a Turkish National Movement commander. It covers the southern part ...

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Initially built as an

Armenian Apostolic The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic Church, belongs to the Arme ...

church, it was converted into a stable after the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

; and later, into a jail.

Sarkis Balyan The Balyan family (; ) was a prominent Armenian family in the Ottoman Empire of court architects in the service of Ottoman sultans and other members of the Ottoman dynasty during the 18th and 19th centuries. For five generations, they designed ...

—the Ottoman-Armenian architect serving Sultan

Abdul Hamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

—designed the church. The building was constructed between 1892 and 1893, undertaken by the

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar ...

Sarkis Taşçıyan. The church was part of a complex which also contained a school and the administrative buildings of the dioceses of the ''

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

'' of Antep. Gaziantep armenian church

In 1915, almost all of the Gaziantep

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

were deported to the

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

desert during the genocide. The church was sealed on 22 August 1915; and its

sacramental A sacramental (Latin pl. ''sacramentalia'') is a sacred sign, a ritual act or a ceremony, which, in a certain imitation of the sacraments, has a spiritual effect and is obtained through the intercession of the Church. Sacramentals surround the sa ...

s and furnishings were put in a large stable, then they were bought and sold at an auction. For over three years the cathedral was used by government for military purposes. Next, it was turned into a prison in the early 1920s; and served as such until the 1970s. The building was converted into a mosque in 1986. The top half of the bell tower was demolished, the remainder converted into a single-balcony

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

. The bell, which was cast in the 19th century in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, was taken to Gaziantep Museum. After renovation, the mosque reopened on 17 June 2017. During the

2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes On 6 February 2023, at 04:17 Time in Turkey, TRT (01:17 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC), a 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Ba'athist Syria, Syria. The epicenter was west–northwest ...

, its dome and minarets collapsed.

References

{{coord, 37, 03, 37, N, 37, 22, 32, E, type:landmark_region:TR, display=title 1892 establishments in the Ottoman Empire 1915 disestablishments in the Ottoman Empire 1986 establishments in Turkey 19th-century churches in Turkey 20th-century mosques in Turkey Armenian Apostolic cathedrals in Turkey Destroyed Armenian churches in Turkey Churches completed in 1893 Defunct prisons in Turkey Destroyed mosques First Turkish National architecture Mosque buildings with domes in Turkey Mosques completed in 1986 Mosques converted from churches in Turkey Mosques in Gaziantep Sarkis Balyan buildings Stone buildings Mosque buildings with minarets in Turkey Places of worship used as prisons

See also

References