The Mosque of Monemvasia (, ) is a historical Ottoman religious building located in the lower medieval town of

Monemvasia Monemvasia (, or ) is a town and municipality in Laconia, Greece. The town is located in mainland Greece on a tied island off the east coast of the Peloponnese, surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea. Monemvasia is connected to the rest of the mainland by a ...

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

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 ...

. Following Greece's independence in 1830, it was briefly used as a prison. The restored old mosque has housed the city's archaeological collection since 1999.

History

In November 1540, the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

took possession of

, then ruled by the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

. Soon after the conquest, a mosque was erected south of the central square of the lower town, opposite of the Metropolitan Church of Christos Elkomenos. According to the local tradition, the building was built on the site of a 16th-century Venetian church dedicated to Saint Peter, bishop of Monemvasia in the eighth century. However, no archaeological evidence seems to attest to an initial presence of a church in the current architecture of the crypts in the lower parts of the monument. According to historian Charis Kalliga, an unfinished Venetian

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

would more likely have preceded the mosque. During the second Venetian rule of Monemvasia (1690–1715), the building was converted into a hospice, probably on the initiative of Capuchin monks, or perhaps into a church dedicated to Saint

Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua, Order of Friars Minor, OFM, (; ; ) or Anthony of Lisbon (; ; ; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese Catholic priest and member of the Order of Friars Minor. ...

. It was reconverted to Muslim worship upon the second Ottoman domination (1715–1821), and then it became a prison upon the independence of Greece in 1830, as attested by the diplomat

Thomas Wyse Sir Thomas Wyse (24 December 1791 – 16 April 1862), an Irish politician and diplomat, belonged to a family claiming descent from a Devon Squire, Andrew Wyse, who is said to have crossed over to Ireland during the reign of Henry II and obtai ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century, when the architect and historian

Ramsay Traquair Ramsay Heatley Traquair Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS (30 July 1840 – 22 November 1912) was a Scottish naturalist and palaeontologist who became a leading expert on fossil fish. Tra ...

visited Monemvasia, the place served as a café. Since 1999, following restoration work, the old mosque has housed Monemvasia's archaeological collection as well as the offices of the 5th

Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities The ephors were a board of five magistrates in ancient Sparta. They had an extensive range of judicial, religious, legislative, and military powers, and could shape Sparta's home and foreign affairs. The word "''ephors''" (Ancient Greek ''éph ...

. In particular, marble remains of a 12th-century church, sculpted elements from the church of

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

, ceramics and everyday objects from the early Christian period to the end of the Ottoman period are on display.

Architecture

The architecture of the monument is nowadays difficult to decipher because of successive reconstructions and changes of use. The building currently has a square prayer hall with an interior side of 6.5 metres, a rectangular extension to the west, while on the north side, a two-storey room now serves as a reception for visitors and a offices for the archaeological service. 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". ...

and the porch are not preserved. The dome, originally culminating at 8.5 metres in height, rests on four squinches. The minaret, no longer surviving, once occupied the southwest corner.

Gallery

File:Monemvasia_Mosque_from_above.jpg, View of the mosque from above. File:Monemvasia_Mosque_interior.jpg, Interior of the mosque.

References

Bibliography

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External links