Istanbul - Kalenderhane mosque

Kalenderhane mosque

Kalenderhane mosque

When the Ottoman conquers arrived n Istanbul in the past in it was more than normal that they changed existing churches into mosques; the Kalenderhane Mosque is a good example for this phenomena. The Kalenderhane mosque is located in the district of Fatih. Scientist discovered that the former church was built on the ruins of a old Roman bath, in the sixty century it was replaced by a small church, which one century later was rebuilt in a larger one.

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Mehmed II in 1453 assigned the church to a sect of dervishes called Kalenderi. The dervishes used the complex for housing and opened a public kitchen, prayerschool and mederese. It was Haci Besir Aga who introduced the missing building parts to make the former church to a mosque, as were a Mihrab, a Mahfil and a Minbar. From 1746 the former church finally was used as a mosque. The complex suffered various damage by fire and earthquakes and was closed in 1930. As late as 1972 a the cost-intensive rebuilding was started and the mosque was reopened 5 years afterwards.

Impressing is the colorful decoration of the church and the colored marbel stones and moldings. The famous mosaic "Presentation of Christ" and the oldest known picture of Saint Francis of Assis were also housed into the mosque however they were removed and can be seen nowadays in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalenderhane_Mosque"

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