İmareti Atik Mosque
Audio Narration:
Construction Year:
1081-1087
Location:
Fatih, İstanbul
Ordered by:
Anna Dalassini (Mother of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos)
Architects:
Unknown
Changes After Construction:
- After the Conquest of Istanbul, the building’s monastery cells were used as a soup kitchen until the Fatih Madrasahs were built; it is said that the number of these cells was 35.
- It operated as the second madrasah of Istanbul after Hagia Sophia until the Fatih Semaniye Madrasahs were completed; later, during the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror, it was used as the soup kitchen of the Zeyrek Mosque.
- After the Fatih madrasahs were built, the building was converted into a mosque.
- Although it was repaired by the Foundations Administration in 1955, its single-balcony minaret was destroyed and only its ruins have survived to the present day.
- During the restoration in 1990, the floor of the mosque was renewed with wooden flooring, the wall plaster was renewed, and the wall skirts were completed with wooden cladding.
Prominent Features:
- Also known as the “Eski Imaret Mosque” and the “Kilise Mosque”.
- Its minbar was placed by Sheikh al-Islam Ishak Efendizade Ahmed Efendi.
- Behind the entrance area, there is the narthex (last congregation place) which opens to the main room of the church in early Christian and Byzantine basilicas; from here, the main domed volume is accessed. The load of the dome covering the middle part of the mosque is transferred to four piers with four large arches.
- The main dome sits on a high drum and creates a bright space with windows; the drum of the dome is decorated with stepped arches on thin half-column bundles on the outside and wavy saw-tooth stone cornices.
- The entrance hall and the narthex section are covered with cross vaults.
- The facade of the mosque is built of two rows of stones and four rows of bricks.
- The building, located on sloping land, contains a cellar (cistern) in the lower and upper parts that reflect the plan of the building.
- It has the distinction of being the only mosque in Istanbul whose dome is covered with tiles.
- There is a tomb in its courtyard.
- The building is considered one of the important examples of Middle Byzantine architecture.