The Eski Imaret Mosque ( tr, Eski Imaret Camii) is a former Byzantine church converted into a mosque by the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

. The church has traditionally been identified as belonging to the Monastery of Christ Pantepoptes ( el, Μονή του Χριστού Παντεπόπτη), meaning "Christ the all-seeing". It is the only documented 11th-century church in Istanbul which survives intact, and represents a key monument of middle

Byzantine architecture Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine era is usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great moved the Roman capital to Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until th ...

. Despite that, it remains among the least studied buildings in the city.

Location

The building lies in Istanbul, in the district of

Fatih Fatih () is a district of and a municipality (''belediye'') in Istanbul, Turkey, and home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the governor's office, police headquarters, metropolitan municipality and tax office) but not the co ...

, in the neighbourhood of

Zeyrek Zeyrek is a picturesque but poor neighbourhood of the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. It takes its name from the huge and prominent Zeyrek Mosque which started life as a Byzantine church and sits on a plateau, overlooking the Golden Horn.Eyi ...

, one of the poorest areas inside the old walled city. It is less than one kilometre northwest of the even more impressive Zeyrek Mosque.

Identification

It was the Patriarch Constantius I (1830–1834) who identified the Eski Imaret Mosque as the old Pantepoptes church. Although this identification has been generally accepted, Cyril Mango argued that its location didn't allow a complete overview of the Golden Horn, and instead suggested the site currently occupied by the

Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque The Yavuz-Sultan-Selim Mosque (german: Yavuz-Sultan-Selim-Moschee) is a religious building in Mannheim, Germany, named for Selim I. Until 2008 it was the biggest mosque in Germany, and attracts up to 3,000 Muslims every weekend.Theophano in the early 10th century, highlighting its similarities to the contemporaneous

Lips Monastery Fenâri Îsâ Mosque (full name in tr, Molla Fenâri Îsâ Câmîi), in Byzantine times known as the Lips Monastery ( el, Μονὴ τοῦ Λιβός), is a mosque in Istanbul, made of two former Eastern Orthodox churches. Location The complex ...

History

Some time before 1087,

Anna Dalassena Anna Dalassene ( el, ; ca. 1025/30 – 1 November 1100/02) was an important Byzantine noblewoman who played a significant role in the rise to power of the Komnenoi in the eleventh century. As '' Augusta'', a title bestowed upon her by her son, A ...

, mother of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus, built a convent dedicated to ''Christos Pantepoptes'' on the summit of the fourth of Constantinople's seven hills where she retired at the end of her life, following Imperial custom.Mathews (1976), p. 59 The convent included a church, also dedicated to the Pantepoptes. On April 12, 1204, during the siege of Constantinople, Emperor Alexios V Doukas Mourtzouphlos established his headquarters near the monastery. From this vantage point he could watch the

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...

fleet under the command of Doge Enrico Dandolo deploying between the monastery of the Euergetes and the church of St. Mary of the Blachernae before attacking the city.Van Millingen (1912), p. 214 After the successful attack he took flight abandoning his purple

tent A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using gu ...

on the spot, thus allowing

Baldwin of Flanders Baldwin I ( nl, Boudewijn; french: Baudouin; July 1172 – ) was the first Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople; Count of Flanders (as Baldwin IX) from 1194 to 1205 and Count of Hainaut (as Baldwin VI) from 1195-1205. Baldwin was on ...

to spend his victory night inside it. The complex was sacked by the Crusaders, and afterwards it was assigned to Benedictine monks from San Giorgio Maggiore in Rome.Jacobi (2001), p. 287 During the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261) the building became a Roman Catholic church. Immediately after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the church became a mosque, while the monastic buildings were used as a ''

zaviye A ''zawiya'' or ''zaouia'' ( ar, زاوية, lit=corner, translit=zāwiyah; ; also spelled ''zawiyah'' or ''zawiyya'') is a building and institution associated with Sufis in the Islamic world. It can serve a variety of functions such a place of ...

'', medrese and '' imaret'' for the nearby Fatih Mosque, which was then under construction. The Turkish name for the mosque ("Old Soup Kitchen Mosque") recall this. The complex has been ravaged by fire several times, and the last traces of the monastery disappeared about a century ago. Until 1970 the building was used as a

Koran school Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

, which rendered it largely inaccessible for architectural study. In 1970, the mosque was partially closed off and restored by the Turkish architect Fikret Çuhadaroğlu.

Architecture

The building lies on a slope which overlooks the Golden Horn, and rests on a platform which is the ceiling of a

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

. It is hemmed in all sides, making inspection of the exterior difficult. Its masonry consists of brick and stone, and uses the ''recessed brick'' technique; it is the oldest extant building of Constantinople in which this technique - which is typical of the Middle Byzantine architecture - can be observed, . In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall in a mortar bed. The thickness of the mortar layers is roughly three times greater than that of the brick layers. The brick tiles on the roof are unique among the churches and mosques of Istanbul, which are otherwise covered with lead. The plan belongs to the cross-in-square (or quincunx) type with a central

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

and four vaulted crossarms, a sanctuary to the east and an esonarthex and an exonarthex to the west. This appears to be an addition of the Palaiologan period, replacng an older

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

, and is divided into three bays. The lateral ones are surmounted by

cross vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Lau ...

s, the central one by a dome. EskiImaretMosque2007

A unique feature of this building is the U-shaped gallery which runs over the narthex and the two western bays of the quincunx. The gallery has windows opening towards both the '' naos'' and the crossarm. It is possible that the gallery was built for the private use of the Empress-Mother. As in many of the surviving Byzantine churches of Istanbul, the four

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s which supported the crossing were replaced by piers, and the colonnades at either ends of the crossarms were filled in. The piers divide the nave into three aisles. The side aisles lead into small clover-leaf-shaped chapels to the east, connected to the sanctuary and ended to the east, like the sanctuary, with an apse. These chapels are the prothesis and diaconicon. The Ottomans resurfaced the apses and added a

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

, since lost. The

, which during the Ottoman period was given a helmet-like shape, recovered its original scalloped roofline in the restoration of 1970. This is typical of the churches of the Macedonian period.Krautheimer (1986), p. 407 The tent-like roofing of the gallery has also been replaced with tiles that follow the curves of the vaulting. The exterior has occasional decorative motifs, like

sunburst A sunburst is a design or figure commonly used in architectural ornaments and design patterns and possibly pattern books. It consists of rays or "beams" radiating out from a central disk in the manner of sunbeams. Sometimes part of a sunbur ...

s, meanders, basket-wave patterns and cloisonnés: the latter motif is typical of the

Greek architecture Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greek-speaking people (''Hellenic'' people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC unti ...

of this period but unknown elsewhere in Constantinople. Of the original interior, nothing remains but some marble mouldings,

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s, and doorframes.

Gallery

File:Eski Imaret Camii 6162.jpg, alt=Eski Imaret Mosque Facade, Eski Imaret Mosque facade File:Eski Imaret Camii 9717.jpg, Eski Imaret Mosque dome and side File:Eski Imaret Camii 9712.jpg, alt=Eski Imaret Mosque decoration outside, External decoration of Eski Imaret Mosque File:Eski Imaret Camii 6156.jpg, alt=Eski Imaret Mosque view from first floor, Eski Imaret Mosque: view from first floor File:Eski Imaret Camii 9707.jpg, Eski Imaret Mosque corridor File:Eski Imaret Camii 9709.jpg, Eski Imaret Mosque column File:Eski Imaret Camii R 6145.jpg, Eski Imaret Mosque File:Eski Imaret Camii R 6146.jpg, Eski Imaret Mosque File:Eski Imaret Camii R 6152.jpg, Eski Imaret Mosque File:Eski Imaret Camii R 6154.jpg, Eski Imaret Mosque

References

Sources

* * * * * * *

External links

Eski Imaret Mosque in Archnet50 pictures of the mosque
{{Churches-Mosques in Istanbul Byzantine church buildings in Istanbul Fatih 11th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Golden Horn