Kefeli mosque

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Kefeli Mosque from the south

The Kefeli Mosque ( Turkish Kefeli Camii , also Kefeli Mescidi , named after the inhabitants of the town of Feodosia , Ottoman Kefe ) is a former Byzantine church, later as a Roman Catholic and Armenian Apostolic was used church before in her Ottoman Empire to Mosque was rebuilt. The building is considered one of the few examples of the resumption of the early Christian form of the basilica during the Byzantine era .

location

The mosque is located in the district Salmatomruk in Istanbul Municipality Fatih in Kasap Sokak between the Chora Church and the Fethiye Mosque .

history

Drawing of the mosque from 1877.

The origins of the building on the sixth hill of Constantinople are unclear. According to tradition, the Armenian-Byzantine general Manuel converted his house into a monastery near the Aspar cistern . Manuel was the uncle of Empress Theodora II , who later lived in the monastery when she gave up her reign and her son Michael III. Byzantine emperor became. The monastery was renovated by Patriarch Photios I in the 9th century and expanded by Emperor Romanos I (approx. 920–944). The Byzantine Emperor Michael VII (approx. 1071-1078) spent his old age here. The history and attribution are controversial to this day and recent research disputes this attribution. In an essay, the art historian Neslihan Asutay-Effenberger also questions the more recent history of the mosque.

In 1475, shortly after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, they conquered the Genoese colony of Caffa (Ottoman: Kefe ) on the Crimean peninsula . Latins , Greeks and Jews were deported to Istanbul and settled here. The Latins, mostly Genoese, were allowed to use the building as a church with the Armenians. The San Nicola Church was dedicated to St. Nicholas and was cared for by the Dominicans and supported by four Catholic families. Armenians and Catholics each had their own altar. The church probably belonged to the church that was later rededicated as the Odalar Mosque . In 1630, under the rule of Murad IV. (1623-1640), Grand Vizier Topal Recep Pasha expropriated the church and converted it into a mescit (small mosque without a minbar ). In return, the Armenians received a Greek church in the Balat district .

architecture

The apse from the north. You can see the alternating layers of hewn stones and bricks.

The structure consists of a large church hall 22.6 meters long and 7.22 meters wide. The extension from north to south is unusual for Byzantine churches. The masonry consists of alternating layers of stone and brick. The original building had three naves, but only one of the aisles in the west has been partially preserved. To the north is an arch with a semicircular apse, which is polygonal on the outside. There are two wall niches in the wall of the apse . The central nave is illuminated by two rows of windows that are irregularly spaced. The south wall is also broken through by two rows of windows. The windows below are significantly larger here than the windows in the upper row. The entrance to the mosque is in the west. There is also a cistern here, the roof of which is supported by three pillars.

The date of construction of the church is unknown. The polygonal apse and the wall niches are typical of the palaeologists' era. The building is architecturally interesting because it is an example of the repositioning of the early Christian form of the basilica during the Byzantine era.

literature

  • Alexander van Millingen: Byzantine Churches of Constantinople . MacMillan & Co, London 1912
  • Thomas F. Mathews: The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul: A Photographic Survey . Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 1976, ISBN 0-271-01210-2
  • Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Bildlexikon on the topography of Istanbul: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul up to the beginning of the 17th century , Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 978-3-8030-1022-3

Web links

Commons : Kefali Mosque  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Mathews (1976), p. 190
  2. ↑ Van Millingen (1912), p. 254
  3. ↑ Van Millingen (1912), p. 257
  4. ↑ Neslihan Asutay-Effenberger : The monastery of Ioannes Prodromos τής Пέτρας in Constantinople and its relationship to the Odala around Kasιm Ağa Camii . In: Millennium - year book on culture and history of the first millennium AD Volume 5, pp. 299–326, here pp. 306–310
  5. ↑ a b c d Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 166
  6. ↑ a b Van Millingen (1912), p. 258

Coordinates: 41 ° 1 ′ 45.8 ″  N , 28 ° 56 ′ 30.1 ″  E