İmareti Atik Mosque

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.

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.