The New Juma Mosque ( tr, Yeni Cuma Camii) is a mosque in

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It was built during

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

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, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the city. Following the capture of the city by Sultan

Mehmed the Conqueror Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...

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 is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

. 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 German Tyrolean traveller, journalist, politician and historian, best known for his controversial discontinuity theory concerning the racial origins of the Greeks, and for ...

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

Alexios I Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinization of names, Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor ...

to Alexios III 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 of history in 1891, Gabriel Millet became a member of the French School at Athens, then director of the École ...

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'' ( gr, λῶρος, lōros) 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 o ...

; 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 and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...

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

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 ...

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 ( ar, محراب, ', 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 w ...

(altar niche) is of

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

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 lec ...

(pulpit) is of wood with no ornamentation.

References

{{Mosques in Turkey Empire of Trebizond Byzantine sacred architecture Mosques in Trabzon Mosques converted from churches in the Ottoman Empire