Kurtuluş Mosque

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Image from the time as a church on a photograph from 1920
Today's condition with attached minarets

The Kurtuluş Mosque ( Turkish Kurtuluş Camii , Liberation Mosque ), formerly the Church of the Holy Mother of God ( Meryem Ana Katedrali , Armenian Սուրբ Աստվածածին Surp Asdvadzadzin ), is one of the largest mosques in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep and was built in 1892 as an Armenian Apostolic Church. The building, located in the Tepebaşı district, served as a prison after the Armenian genocide from the 1920s and was converted into a mosque after 1980.

The church, which contains Gothic elements , was built by the stonemason Sarkis Tashjian (Taşçıyan) according to a plan by the Armenian court architect of the Turkish sultan, Sarkis Bey Balian .

The corners and edges of the classicist-style Armenian church are made with black and white stones from the region. It is a square building, the main hall is covered with a polygonal dome. The interior of the church is cross-shaped and has been largely preserved. The crosses inside were covered after the conversion into a mosque, the crosses on the outside were torn down. The church has five doors, two of which are on the north side, two on the south side and one on the west side. The three-ton church bell was specially cast in South America by the Armenian Hrant Köşkeryan, who lives in Brazil , and is now in the Gaziantep Museum. Only a substructure of the church towers survived to this day, the upper part was converted into a minaret . The minaret is pointed and has only one scheref (balcony).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas A. Sinclair: Eastern Turkey. An Architectural and Archaeological Survey. Volume 4. The Pindar Press, London 1990, p. 111.
  2. ↑ a b Kiliseler. Retrieved January 16, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b c Kurtuluş Camii. Retrieved January 16, 2016 .

Coordinates: 37 ° 3 ′ 37.3 ″  N , 37 ° 22 ′ 31.2 ″  E