The New Juma Mosque () is a mosque in

Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...

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 ...

. It was built during

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 ...

times as the Hagios Eugenios Church, dedicated to Saint Eugenius, the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of the city. Following the capture of 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 1461, like many churches in that city it was converted to a mosque. It is not known exactly when the church was built, however researchers consider that it was a

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 ...

. An inscription dated 1291 has been found near it. However, during the siege of Trebizond in 1222, Sultan Melik, enraged at the resistance of the city's inhabitants, is said to have ordered the upper walls torn down and the floors broken and pulled up, so it is likely the present structure was built in the years immediately afterwards.

Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (10 December 1790 – 26 April 1861) was a Germans, German county of Tyrol, Tyrolean traveller, journalist, politician and historian, best known for his controversial Discontinuity (Postmodernism), discontinuity the ...

, who visited Trebizond in the early 19th century, reports that he saw remains of paintings of the Emperors of Trebizond from Alexios I to

Alexios III Alexios III may refer to: * Alexios III Angelos (c. 1153–1211), Emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Alexios III of Trebizond Alexios III Megas Komnenos (; 5 October 1338 – 20 March 1390), or Alexius III, was Emperor of Trebizond from December ...

inside, each with an inscription giving the title and name of the subjects; although by the time

Gabriel Millet Gabriel Millet (17 April 1867 – 8 May 1953) was a French archaeologist and historian. Biography After he passed his Agrégation, agrégation of history in 1891, Gabriel Millet became a member of the French School at Athens, then director of ...

inspected the building, the inscriptions had disappeared, Millet confirmed traces of the paintings remained to the left of the entrance: "one person wearing the

loros The ''loros'' () was a long, narrow and embroidered cloth, which was wrapped around the torso and dropped over the left hand. It was one of the most important and distinctive parts of the most formal and ceremonial type of imperial Byzantine dr ...

; another seems to hold a scepter; to the right, a third kneels, presenting an object, no doubt the church which he founded, to a saint seated and dressed like a martyrs, in Byzantine costume." The present building has no

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of Early Christian art and architecture, early Christian and Byzantine architecture, Byzantine basilicas and Church architecture, churches consisting of the entrance or Vestibule (architecture), ve ...

today, but there are three naves. The middle apse is rounded on the inside and pentagonal on the outside. The

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 ...

was added at the area around the north door of the church, which was turned into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1461. The stone

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". ...

(altar niche) is of

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

style, and the

mimber A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and lect ...

(pulpit) is of wood with no ornamentation.

References

Empire of Trebizond Byzantine architecture in Trabzon Mosques in Trabzon Mosques converted from churches in Turkey

15th-century mosques in Turkey 13th-century churches Mosque buildings with minarets in Turkey Byzantine church buildings in Turkey {{Byzantine-stub