Hırami Ahmet Pasha Mosque
The Hırami Ahmet Pasha Mosque ( Turkish : Hırami Ahmet Paşa Mescidi ) is a former Greek Orthodox church and today's mosque ( Mescit ) in Istanbul . The church was part of the monastery of John the Baptist at the domes ( Greek Ἃγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Πρόδρομος ἐν τῷ Τρούλλῳ , Hagios Ioannis ho Prodromos en tō Trullō ) and was rededicated as a mosque in Ottoman times . It is the smallest surviving Byzantine church building in old Constantinople.
location
The building is located in the Çarşamba district of Istanbul's Fatih district in the Koltukçu sokağı on a small square and surrounded by newer buildings less than 400 meters south of the Pammakaristos Church complex (Fethiye Mosque) and north of the Mehmet Ağa Mosque .
history
Nothing is known about the history of the church before the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The name "troullos" ( Latin trullus , Italian trullo , dome ) perhaps comes from the nearby palace, which is built over with domes. The style of the building can be dated to the 12th century.
When the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was relocated from the Apostle Church to the Pammakaristos Church between 1454 and 1456 , Patriarch Gennadios Scholarios settled some nuns from the Pammacharistos Monastery in the Troullos nunnery, which was possibly founded on this occasion. During the reign of Sultan Murat III. walked Hirami Amet Pasha , previously Agha of the Janissaries , the Pammakristos Church to the end of the 16th century into a mosque. He also rebuilt the Johanneskirche, closed the monastery and drove out the nuns. This could have happened between 1587/88 (the year the Pammacharistos monastery was closed) and 1598 (the death of the Pasha). The small building fell into disrepair by the beginning of the 20th century. It has been carefully restored and has been used again as an Islamic prayer room since 1961.
architecture
The cross-domed church was built from ashlar , which are interrupted by three bands of five rows of bricks each. It has a tripartite bema and a narthex . It is only 15 meters long with the narthex. The cross arms in the north and south are spanned by barrel vaults and illuminated by triple windows in blind arches . Four columns with capitals support a high dome made of red bricks, which is broken by eight windows. Externally, the dome looks like a round tower with a flat roof. The three apses are semicircular. The central apse protrudes further outwards and is broken by three arched windows that are separated by two columns. The Diakonikon is now used as the mosque's mihrab . The prosthesis is spanned by a barrel vault. The mosque does not have a minaret .
Before the restoration, the building was in poor condition: the narthex was almost completely destroyed, the columns had disappeared and the murals were barely visible. The four missing columns have been replaced by older ones, the origin of which is unknown.
Exterior of the mosque
Tambour with a flat dome
The central apse protrudes far from the building
The side apses are smaller and more stocky
The banded masonry made of bricks and stone is clearly visible in the entrance area
Pillar at the window of the central apse
literature
- Alexander van Millingen: Byzantine Churches of Constantinople . MacMillan & Co, London 1912
- Ernest Mamboury : The Tourists' Istanbul . Çituri Biraderler Basımevi, Istanbul 1953
- Raymond Janin: La Géographie Ecclésiastique de l'Empire Byzantin . 1st part: Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique of the 3rd volume: Les Églises et les Monastères . Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines, Paris 1953
- Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Bildlexikon on the topography of Istanbul: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul up to the 17th century . Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 978-3-8030-1022-3
Web links
- Virtual reconstruction of the church , project Byzantium 1200
- Photos of the mosque , pbase.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Janin (1953), p. 423
- ↑ Van Millingen (1912), p. 202
- ↑ Janin (1953), p. 456
- ↑ Mamboury (1953), p. 263
- ↑ a b Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 146
- ↑ a b Janin (1953), p. 457
- ↑ Van Millingen (1912), p. 204
- ↑ Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 145
Coordinates: 41 ° 1 ′ 40.3 " N , 28 ° 56 ′ 44.8" E