The Bayrakli Mosque (, from , meaning "mosque of the flag-bearer") also known as the Hamidiye Mosque () is a historical mosque from the Ottoman period in the island of
Chios
Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...
, in
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
. It is one of the three surviving mosques on the island, the other two being the
Osmaniye Mosque and the
Mecidiye Mosque.
History
Per the marble inscription above the doorframe, the mosque's construction started in 1891–1892 by order of Sultan
Abdülhamit II, back when Chios was part of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
and the
Vilayet of the Archipelago.
The Bayrakli mosque is located inside the fortress of the old town Chios, in Saint George Street, on the location of the ancient city of Chios. Several materials taken from ancient buildings were used for its construction, while according to a local legend part of it was built on the site of and old Genoese Catholic church; however such tale is not confirmed from any historiography.
Following the
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...
, the
Treaty of Lausanne and the
exchange of populations between Turkey and Greece in the early twentieth century, the building no longer functioned as a mosque but housed a displaced Armenian family, whose initials that they carved in the stone can still be seen.
It was eventually sold to a bank, which donated it to the
Greek Ministry of Culture.
The Greek Ministry of Culture registered the building on March 5 1999, and for some time, it functioned as a repair shop for electronic devices.
Renovations works on the mosque began in 2018 and finished in 2023, when the mosque was made available to the public once more as a monument.
Although there have been calls for the mosque to be given to the Muslim community as a praying center, so such measures have been implemented yet.
Architecture
The mosque has a rectangular floor plan and covered with a roof, while the main prayer area was torn down. Above the mihrab, the panel reads "Küllema dehale aleyha Zekeriyya el-mihrab" ("each time Zacharias goes in the altar where Mary takes place"), referring to Virgin Mary and the visits of High Priest Zacharias to Solomon's Temple.
During the renovation works that were completed by 2023, large parts of the interior decoration were reconstructed, while the exterior was systematically preserved.
The Bayrakli Mosque was built during the same time as another Ottoman mosque in Chios, the
Osmaniye Mosque, and thus shares some similarities in architectural style.
See also
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Islam in Greece
Islam in Greece is represented by two distinct communities; Muslims that have lived in Greece since the times of the Ottoman Empire (primarily in East Macedonia and Thrace) and Muslim immigrants that began arriving in the last quarter of the ...
*
List of former mosques in Greece
*
List of mosques in Greece
*
Ottoman Greece
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{Mosques in Greece
Ottoman mosques in Greece
Buildings and structures in Chios
Ottoman Chios
Mosques completed in the 1890s
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1892
19th-century mosques in Greece
Former mosques in Greece