gravestone of Hz. Yuşa

Hazreti Yuşa 'nın mezartaşı, Hz. Yuşa Türbesi, İstanbul, gravestone of Hz. Yuşa, Pentax K10d

Hz. Yuşa Türbesi, İstanbul, Anadolu Kavağı

a grave from Hz. Yuşa's Thomb, Anadolu Kavağı, İstanbul, Hazreti Yuşa Türbesinden, eski türbedarlardan birisinin mezarı, Pentax K10d

pink tulips, I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you

 

pink tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul lale festivali 2009, pentax k10d

All I Really Want To Do

I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you,
Beat or cheat or mistreat you,
Simplify you, classify you,
Deny, defy or crucify you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

No, and I ain’t lookin’ to fight with you,
Frighten you or uptighten you,
Drag you down or drain you down,
Chain you down or bring you down.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up,
Analyze you, categorize you,
Finalize you or advertise you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to straight-face you,
Race or chase you, track or trace you,
Or disgrace you or displace you,
Or define you or confine you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to meet your kin,
Make you spin or do you in,
Or select you or dissect you,
Or inspect you or reject you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to fake you out,
Take or shake or forsake you out,
I ain’t lookin’ for you to feel like me,
See like me or be like me.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

Bob Dylan

Ivazefendi Mosque, Ayvansaray, İstanbul

Ivazefendi mosque, Ayvansaray, İstanbul, İvazefendi Camii, Pentax K10d

Süleymaniye Camii, İstanbul

Suleymaniye Mosque, Süleymaniye Camii, istanbul, pentax k10d

visitors in Sultanahmet Square

visitors from Hagia Sophia museum, Sultanahmet square, İstanbul, Ayasofya müzesi ziyaretcileri, Sultanahmet meydanı

field explorer

istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul, istanbul lale festivali 2009, pentax k10d

TV show, on the field

Sultanahmet square, TV show preperation, İstanbul

Galata Tower, İstanbul

galata tower, istanbul, galata kulesi, pentax k10d

tulip hunter

istanbul tulip festival 2009, pentax k10d, istanbul lale festivali 2009, istanbul

Hagia Sophia Museum, İstanbul, Sultanahmet

Hagia Sophia Museum, Ayasofya müzesi, Sultanahmet, İstanbul

Ayasofya müzesi, İstanbul, Hagia Sophia museum, Sultanahmet square

Ayasofya müzesi, İstanbul, Hagia Sophia museum, Sultanahmet square

Atik Valide Mosque (Valide-i Atik Camii), Üsküdar, İstanbul

The Atik Valide Mosque (Turkish: Atik Valide Camii, Eski Valide Camii) is an Ottoman mosque located on the hill above a large and densely populated district of Üsküdar, in Istanbul, Turkey.

valide atik camii

The Atik Valide Mosque (name translation:Old Mosque of the Sultan’s Mother) was one of the most extensive mosque complexes in Istanbul area. The mosque was built for Sultana Nur-Banu, the Venetian -born wife of Selim II and the mother of Murat III. She was the first of all sultan’s mothers that ruled over the Ottoman Empire from harem.

Kulliyat of Valide Atik Mosque, Üsküdar

Mimar Sinan completed the mosque in 1583, and it was his last major work. It has a wide shallow dome which rest on five semidomes, with a flat arch over the entrance portal. The interior is surrounded on three sides by galleries.

valide atik camii

main entry of valide atik camii

valide atik camii

valide atik mosque

Kulliyat of Valide Atik Mosque, Üsküdar

fountain in Atik Valide Mosque’s garden, Şadırvan

valide atik camii uskudar

valide atik camii

Molla Gürani Camii (Vefa Kilise Mosque)

Vefa Kilise Mosque (Turkish: Vefa Kilise Camii, meaning “the church mosque of Vefa”, to distinguish it from the other kilise camiler of Istanbul: also known as Molla Gürani Camii after the name of his founder) is a former Eastern Orthodox church converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. The church was possibly dedicated to Hagios Theodoros (St. Theodore, in Greek: ἡ Ἐκκλησία του Ἁγίου Θεοδόρου), but this dedication is far from certain. The complex represents one of the most important examples of Comnenian and Palaiologan architecture of Constantinople.

 

Molla Gürani Mosque

Location
The building lies in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Vefa, less than one kilometer to the northwest of the other great Byzantine building in Vefa (the mosque of Kalenderhane), and a few hundred meters south of the Süleymaniye Mosque.

History
The origin of the building, which lies on the slope of the third hill of Constantinople, is not certain. Judging by its masonry, it was erected between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries, during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos. The dedication to Hagios Theodoros is also far from certain. During the Latin domination of Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade the edifice was used as a Roman Catholic church.

Shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, the church became a mosque, founded by the famous Kurdish scholar Molla Gürani, who was the tutor of Sultan Mehmed II and would become the first Mufti of Istanbul. The mosque is also named after him. In 1833, a fire ravaged the complex destroying the wooden annexes. In 1937, the building underwent a partial restoration, and its surviving mosaics were uncovered and cleaned.

 

Molla Gürani Camii

Architecture and decoration

The church proper, which has never been studied systematically, has a cross-in-square (or quincunx) plan, with each side nine meters long. Together with the Eski Imaret Mosque, provides an example of the Komnenian style in Constantinople. Its masonry consists of bricks, mounted adopting the technique of the recessed brick, typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period. In this technique, alternate courses of brick are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged into a mortar bed. Due to that, the thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the brick layers.

The building has blind arcades, and the apse is interrupted by a triple lancet window with niches over it. The light penetrates into the cross arms through triple arcades. The exterior of the main church has occasional decorative motifs, such as snake patterns.

Besides the this building, the complex contains also an exonarthex to the west, a portico (which joins a parekklesion with the bema) with columns and arches to the south, and finally a corridor to the north.

The exonarthex represents one of the most typical examples of Palaiologan architecture in Constantinople, along with the parekklesia of the Pammakaristos, the Chora Churches, and Fethiye Mosque. The date of its edification should be placed after those of the parekklesia of the Pammakaristos and Chora Churches. Its façade has two orders, both opened with arcades. On the lower order there are angular niches followed by triple arcades. The higher order is quite different from the lower, and has five semicircular blind arcades framing windows. The masonry is made of banded and colorful brickwork and stonework, especially visible on the north side. Overall, the execution is less refined than in the parekklesion of the Fethiye Mosque.

The exonarthex is surmounted by three domes. The lateral ones are of umbrella type, while the central one has ribs. The internal decoration of the exonartex includes: columns, capitals and closure slabs which are all reused material from the Early Byzantine period. The three domes were all covered with mosaics. Those on the south dome were cleaned in 1937 under the direction of the Ministry of Mosques, but as of 2007 they have disappeared almost completely. The interior of the church proper, on the contrary, has never been de-plastered up to now.

from Wikipedia

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Molla Gürani Mosque

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Molla Gürani Camii

Hagia Sophia Museum (Ayasofya müzesi), Istanbul

Hagia Sophia Museum (Ayasofya müzesi)

Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya, from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, “Holy Wisdom”; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia) is a former patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and to have “changed the history of architecture.” It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Seville Cathedral in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 A.D. on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and was in fact the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site (the previous two had both been destroyed by riots). It was designed by two architects, Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. The Church contained a large collection of holy relics and featured, among other things, a 50 foot (15 m) silver iconostasis. It was the patriarchal church of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years.

ayasofya

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over. The Islamic features — such as the mihrab, the minbar, and the four minarets outside — were added over the course of its history under the Ottomans. It remained as a mosque until 1935, when it was converted into a museum by the Republic of Turkey.

For almost 500 years the principal mosque of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for many of the Ottoman mosques such as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque of Istanbul), the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Rüstem Pasha Mosque.

Although it is sometimes referred to as Santa Sophia, the Greek name in full is Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, Church of the Holy Wisdom of God. It was to this, the Holy Wisdom of God, that the Church was dedicated (“Sophia” being the phonetic spelling in Latin of the Greek word for wisdom). So Santa Sophia should be understood as the italianate title of the church, Holy Wisdom; not as a reference to some saint named Sophia.

History, First church
Nothing remains of the first church that was built on this location, known as the Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία (Megálē Ekklēsíā, “Great Church”), or in Latin “Magna Ecclesia”.

As often happened in those days, the site was selected because there had been a pagan temple there. The church was built next to the area where the imperial palace was being developed and next to the smaller church Hagia Eirene, finished first and acting as cathedral until the Hagia Sophia was completed. The Hagia Sophia was inaugurated by Constantius II on 15 February 360. Both churches acted together as the principal churches of the Byzantine Empire.

This church was chronicled by Socrates of Constantinople (380–440), who claimed that it was built by Constantine the Great. It was built as a traditional Latin colonnaded basilica with galleries and a wooden roof. It was preceded by an atrium. This first church was then already claimed to be one of the world’s most outstanding monuments.

Second Church
The Patriarch of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, came into a conflict with Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of the Emperor Arcadius and was sent into exile on 20 June 404. During the subsequent riots, this first church was largely burned down. A second church was ordered by Theodosius II, who inaugurated it on 10 October 415. The basilica with a wooden roof was built by architect Rufinos.

The fire that started during the tumult of the Nika Revolt resulted in the destruction of the (second) Hagia Sophia, which burned down to the ground on 13–14 January 532.

Several marble blocks from this second church have survived to the present day, and they are displayed in the garden of the current (third) church. The blocks were originally part of a monumental front entrance; they were excavated in the western courtyard by A.M. Schneider in 1935. The relief depicting 12 lambs — 12 apostles as well as other remains of this church were discovered during excavation works in 1935. In order not to harm the present Hagia Sophia building, further excavation works were not carried out.

Third church (the current building)
On February 23, 532, only a few days after the destruction of the second basilica, Emperor Justinian I took the decision to build a third and entirely different basilica, larger and more majestic than its predecessors.It is now known as the “Church of holy wisdom.”

Justinian chose the physicist Isidore of Miletus and the mathematician Anthemius of Tralles as architects; Anthemius, however, died within the first year. The construction is described by the Byzantine historian Procopius’ On Buildings (Peri ktismatōn, Latin: De aedificiis). The emperor had material brought over from all over the empire, such as Hellenistic columns from the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Large stones were brought from far-away quarries: porphyry from Egypt, green marble from Thessaly, black stone from the Bosporus region and yellow stone from Syria. More than ten thousand people were employed during this construction. This new church was immediately recognized as a major work of architecture, demonstrating the creative insights of the architects. They may have used the theories of Heron of Alexandria to be able to construct a huge dome over such a large open space. The emperor, together with the patriarch Eutychius, inaugurated the new basilica on December 27, 537 with much pomp and circumstance. The mosaics inside the church were, however, only completed under the reign of Emperor Justin II (565–578).

Earthquakes in August 553 and on December 14, 557 caused cracks in the main dome and the eastern half-dome to appear. The main dome collapsed completely during an earthquake on May 7, 558, destroying the ambon, the altar and the ciborium over it. The emperor ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isodorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus. This time he used lighter materials and elevated the dome by 6.25 metres (20.5 ft), thus giving the building its current interior height of 55.6 metres (182 ft). . This reconstruction, giving the church its present 6th century form, was completed in 562. The Byzantine poet Paul the Silentiary composed an extant, long epic poem, known as Ekphrasis, for the rededication of the basilica, presided over by Patriarch Eutychius, on 23 December 562.

Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies, such as coronations. The basilica also offered asylum to wrongdoers. Foreign visitors were deeply impressed.

In 726 the Emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a series of edicts against the veneration of images, ordering the army to destroy all icons, ushering in the period of Byzantine iconoclasm. At that time, all religious pictures and statues were removed from the Hagia Sophia. After a brief reprieve under Empress Irene (797–802), the iconoclasts made a comeback. Emperor Theophilus (829–842) was strongly influenced by Islamic art,[citation needed] which forbids graven images. He had a two-winged bronze door with his monograms installed at the southern entrance of the church.

The basilica suffered damage, first by a great fire in 859, and again by an earthquake on January 8, 869 that made a half-dome collapse. Emperor Basil I ordered the church to be repaired.

After the great earthquake of 25 October 989, which ruined the great dome of Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine emperor Basil II asked for the Armenian architect Trdat, creator of the great churches of Ani and Agine, to repair the dome. His main repairs were to the western arch and a portion of the dome. The extent of the church’s destruction meant that reconstruction lasted six years. The church was re-opened on 13 May 994.

In his book De caerimoniis aulae Byzantinae (Book of Ceremonies), emperor Constantine VII (913–919) wrote about all the details of the ceremonies held in the Hagia Sophia by the emperor and the patriarch.

19th Century marker of the tomb of Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, inside the Hagia SophiaAt the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, the church was ransacked and desecrated by the Latin Christians. The Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates described the capture of Constantinople. Many reputed relics from the church, such as a stone from the tomb of Jesus, the Virgin Mary’s milk, the shroud of Jesus, and bones of several saints, were sent to churches in the West and can be seen now in various museums in the West. During the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261) the church became a Roman Catholic cathedral. Baldwin I of Constantinople was crowned emperor on 16 May 1204 in the Hagia Sophia, at a ceremony which closely followed Byzantine practices. Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the sack and invasion of the city by the Latin Crusaders in 1204, is buried inside the church. The tomb inscription carrying his name, which has become a part of the floor decoration, was spat upon by many of the angry Byzantines who recaptured Constantinople in 1261. However, restoration carried out during the period 1847–1849 cast doubt upon the authenticity of the doge’s grave. It is more likely a symbolic burial site to keep alive his memory.

After the recapture in 1261 by the Byzantines, the church was in a dilapidated state. The four buttresses in the west were probably built during this time. In 1317, emperor Andronicus II ordered four new buttresses to be built in the eastern and northern parts of the church. After new cracks had developed in the dome after the earthquake of October 1344, several parts of the building collapsed on 19 May 1346. After that, the church remained closed until 1354, when repairs were undertaken by the architects Astras and Peralta.

 

visitors in Hagia Sophia

Mosque (the current building)

Immediately after the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted to the Ayasofya Mosque as the symbol of the conquest. At that time, the church was very dilapidated. Several of its doors had fallen off. This condition was described by several Western visitors, such as the Córdoban nobleman Pero Tafur and the Florentine Cristoforo Buondelmonti. The sultan Mehmed II ordered the immediate cleanup of the church and its conversion to a mosque. The next sultan Bayezid II built a new minaret, replacing the one built by his father.

In the 16th century the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) brought back two colossal candles from his conquest of Hungary. They were placed on both sides of the mihrab. During the reign of Selim II (1566–1577), the building started showing signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the addition of structural supports to its exterior by the great Ottoman architect Sinan, who is also considered one of the world’s first earthquake engineers. In addition to strengthening the historic Byzantine structure, Sinan built the two additional large minarets at the western end of the building, the original sultan’s loge, and the mausoleum of Selim II to the southeast of the building (then a mosque) in 1577. The mausoleums of Murad III and Mehmed III were built next to it in the 1600s.

Later additions were the sultan’s gallery, a minbar decorated with marble, a dais for a sermon and a loggia for a muezzin.

The sultan Murad III (1574–1595) had two large alabaster Hellenistic urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two sides of the nave.

Sultan Mahmud I ordered the restoration of the building in 1739 and added a medrese (a Koranic school, now the library of the museum), a soup kitchen (for distribution to the poor) and a library, and in 1740 a fountain for ritual ablutions (Şadirvan), thus transforming it into a külliye, i.e. a social complex. At the same time a new sultan’s gallery and a new mihrab were built inside.

The most famous restoration of the Hagia Sophia was ordered by Sultan Abdülmecid and completed by eight hundred workers between 1847 and 1849, under the supervision of the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The brothers consolidated the dome and vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior of the building. The mosaics in the upper gallery were cleaned. The old chandeliers were replaced by new pendant ones. New gigantic circular-framed disks were hung on columns. They were inscribed with the names of Allah, the prophet Muhammad, the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, and the two grandchildren of Mohammed: Hassan and Hussain, by the calligrapher Kazasker İzzed Effendi (1801–1877). In 1850 the architect Fossati built a new sultan’s gallery in a Neo-Byzantine style connected to the royal pavilion behind the mosque. Outside the Hagia Sophia, a timekeeper’s building and a new medrese were built. The minarets were altered so that they were of equal height. When the restoration was finished, the mosque was re-opened with ceremonial pomp on 13 July 1849.

Museum (the current building)
In 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum. The carpets were removed and the marble floor decorations appeared for the first time in centuries, while the white plaster covering the mosaics was painstakingly removed by expert restorers.

ayasofya museum

hagia sophia

dome of Hagia Sophia

visitors in Hagia Sophia

tile panel

ayasofya

hagia sophia

mosaic panel from Hagia Sophia

ayasofya museum

mystic lights

My name is Kader (Benim adım Kader)

street portrait from Balat

Gül Camii (Gül Mosque, Hagia Theodosia or Christos Euergetes)

Gül Camii (Gül Mosque, Hagia Theodosia or Christos Euergetes)

Gül Mosque (Turkish: Gül Camii, meaning: “The Mosque of the Rose” in English) is a former Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul, Turkey converted into a mosque by the Ottomans.

Location
The building is located in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Ayakapı (“Gate of the Saint”), along Vakif Mektebi Sokak. It lies at the end of the valley which divides the fourth and the fifth hills of Constantinople, and from its imposing position it overlooks the Golden Horn.

 

Golden Horn view from Balat, Balat sırtlarından Haliç manzarası

Identification
It is one of the most important religious Byzantine buildings of Constantinople still extant, but its dedication and the date of its construction, which for long time appeared certain, are now disputed by scholars. It is either identified with the church belonging to the nunnery of Saint Theodosia (Greek: Μονή τής Άγιας Θεοδοσίας εν τοις Δεξιοκράτους, Monē tis Hagias Theodosias en tois Dexiokratous) or with that of the monastery of Christ the Benefactor (Greek: Μονή του Χριστού του Ευεργέτου, Monē tou Christou tou Euergetou).

Together with Eski Imaret and Vefa Kilise Mosques, it is one of the most important cross-in-square churches in Istanbul.

Problem of the dedication
The building, since Stephan Gerlach visited it in the late 15th century, has always been identified with the church of Hagia Theodosia en tois Dexiokratous. At the beginning of last century, Jules Pargoire identified the building as the church of Hagia Euphēmia en tō Petriō, built during the reign of Basil I (867-886), and brilliantly explained the change in its dedication. The German archaeologist Hartmut Schäfer, after studies performed in the 1960s on the dating of the basement, estimated the date of construction of the edifice between the end of the eleventh and the first half of 12th century, placing it in the Komnenian age, and identifying it hypothetically as the church of the monastery of Christos Euergetēs. He excludes the possibility that the Gül Mosque is the building where the body of Hagia Theodosia was brought after the end of the Iconoclasm period. On the other hand, he does not exclude the possibility that the building could have been dedicated to Hagia Theodosia in a later period.

Gül Mosque

Gül Camii

Byzantine style walls of Gül Mosque

Gül Camii

little girl on Gül Camii’s street

Gül Mosque and Küçük Mustafa Paşa Bath view from Balat streets

walls of Gül Mosque

Gül Camii street

Golden Horn view from Balat, Balat sırtlarından Haliç manzarası

 

History, Byzantine period

The southwest gallery with the wooden Sultan lodge.On January 19, 729, at the very beginning of the iconoclastic persecutions, Emperor Leo III the Isaurian ordered the removal of an image of Christ which stood over the Chalkē, the main gate of the Great Palace of Constantinople. While an officer was executing the order, a group of women gathered to prevent the operation, and one of them, a nun named Theodosia, let him fall from the ladder. The man died, and Theodosia was captured and executed.

After the end of the Iconoclasm, Theodosia was recognized as a martyr and saint, and her body was kept and worshiped in the church of Hagia Euphemia en tō Petriō, in the quarter named Dexiokratiana, after the houses owned here by one Dexiokrates. The church and adjoining monastery were erected by Emperor Basil I at the end of the ninth century. The monastery hosted his four daughters, who were all buried in the church. Hagia Euphemia lay near the Monastery of Christos Euergetēs, whose foundation date is unknown. It is only known that it was restored by protosebastos John Komnenos, son of Andronikos I Komnenos and brother of co-emperor John, who died fighting in the battle of Myriokephalon in 1176. On April 12, 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, the Latin fleet gathered in front of the monastery of the Euergetes before attacking the city. During the Latin Empire, the navy had its anchorage in front of the monastery, and the naval port was kept there by Michael VIII Palaiologos also after the restoration of the Byzantine Empire. Many sacred relics kept in the church were looted by the Crusaders and many still exist in churches throughout western Europe.

The worship of Theodosia grew with the time until, after the 11th century, the church was named after her. Since the original feast day of Hagia Euphemia occurred on the 30th of May, and that of another Hagia Theodosia, Hagia Theodosia of Tyros occurred on the 29th of May, finally this day became the feast day of Hagia Theodosia hē Konstantinoupolitissa (“Saint Theodosia from Constantinople”).

Hagia Theodosia became one among the most venerated saints in Constantinople, being invoked particularly by the infirm. The fame of the saint was increased by the recovery of a deaf-mute in 1306. The church is often mentioned by the Russian pilgrims who visited the city in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, but sometimes it is confounded with Christ Euergetēs, which, as already said, stood near it. Twice a week a procession took place in the nearby roads. In that occasion the relics hosted in the church were carried along, followed by a great crowd of sick people praying for their recovery.

The church is mentioned for the last time on May 28, 1453. On that day, which was the eve both of the Saint’s feast and also of the end of the Byzantine Empire, the Emperor Constantine XI with the Patriarch went to pray into the church, which was adorned with garlands of roses. Afterward Constantine left for the last struggle. Many people remained all the night in the church, praying for the salvation of the city. On the morning the Ottoman troops, after entering the city, reached the building, still adorned with flowers, and captured all the people gathered inside, considering them as prisoners of war. The relics were thrown away and the body of the Saint was cast to the dogs

Ottoman period

Gül Mosque on a Miniature of Nusret Çolpan.After the Ottoman conquest, the basement of the edifice, which in the meantime had fallen to ruin, was used as naval dockyard. Close to the building, Seyhülislam Molla Hüsrev Mehmet Effendi (died 1480) established a vakıf (foundation) and erected a small mosque (Küçük Mustafa Paşa Mescidi) and a bath (Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı), which still exists.

Some years later (in 1490), the ruined church was repaired and converted into a mosque. A minaret was erected between 1566 and 1574, under Selim II, by Hassam Pasha, a supplier of the Ottoman navy. Afterwards the mosque was often named after him. Between 1573 and 1578, during his sojourn in Istanbul, the German preacher Stephan Gerlach visited the mosque, identifying it with the church of Hagia Theodosia. During that century the mosque saw the predication of the local holy man Gül Baba, which was allegedly buried in the building. It is also possible that the mosque was named after him.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the edifice was heavily damaged in its upper parts by earthquakes, until Sultan Murat IV restored it, rebuilding the dome with the pendentives, almost the whole west side, the vaults at the southwest and northwest corners, and the minaret.

The building escaped the great fire which ravaged the quarter in 1782, and was restored again by Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839), who added the wooden Sultan’s lodge.

Exterior
The building lies on a high vaulted basement, which was used also during the Byzantine period only for secular purposes. The masonry of the basement has been built adopting the technique of the “recessed brick”, typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period. In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar bed. Due to that, the thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the brick layers.

The building has a cross-in-square plan, which is oriented northwest – southeast. It is 26 meters long and 20 meters wide, and is surmounted by five domes, one above the central nave and four smaller placed on the four corners. The central dome, which has a low external drum and has no windows, is Ottoman, as are the broad pointed arches which carry it.

The original dome, akin to that of Kalenderhane Mosque, should have been carried by a tall drum pierced by windows. The exterior of the building is quite imposing. On the southeastern façade, the central apse, with seven sides, and the lateral ones, with three sides, project boldly outside. The central apse appears to be a later Byzantine reconstruction, since it lacks the four tiers of five niches, which feature ornamental brickwork and adorn the lateral ones. Above the niches runs a cornice.

The style of the side apses resembles strongly that of those of Pantokrator Church, and is a further element in favour of a late dating of the building.

source : wikipedia

Istanbul City Walls (Edirnekapı region)

Istanbul City Walls

The triangular promontory on which old Istanbul is located is surrounded by city walls. The 22 km long walls date back to the 5th century, the Roman era. The original city of Byzantium expanded toward the west and new city walls were erected four times, each time enlarging the city further.

The peninsula was easily defensible. The terrain to the west is quite flat in the direction of the Balkans, but the gigantic walls ensured protection on the landside.

The shores of the Golden Horn and the Marmara were also defended by a single, but sturdy wall.Nothing has survived from the walls built around the acropolis of Byzantium, the second wall built by Septimius Severus in the 3rd century or the third wall built in 320 by Constantine the Great.

The land walls start from the seashore and, after crossing hills and valleys, join the sea wall on the banks of the Golden Horn.Inscriptions from different eras indicate the restorations in the walls. The land walls are 6,492 m long from Golden Horn to MarmaraSea. Behind the moat and the first row of walls and battlements rise the higher main wall with 96 towers.Most of the original gates have survived to our day. As a result ‘of the restoration and renovation work that began in the 1980’s and is still continuing, the vicinity of the walls has been improved and the some areas turned into public parks.

Edirnekapı streets and walls, Surlardan Edirnekapı Saklı mahalle görünümü

Edirnekapı from walls

Golden Horn scene from walls, Surlardan Haliç manzarası

walls

tourists are trying to visit higher parts of walls

istanbul city walls edirnekapi 64

part of Tekfur Palace, Tekfur Sarayı ‘nın bir bölümü

part of Tekfur Palace, Tekfur Sarayı ‘nın bir bölümü

Eğrikapı door of walls

Chora Church, Kariye Museum (Kariye Müzesi)

Chora Church, Kariye Museum

The Chora Museum (Turkish Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, or Kariye Kilisesi — the Chora Museum, Mosque or Church) is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of a Byzantine church. The church is situated in the western, Edirnekapı district of Istanbul. In the 16th century, the church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman rulers, and it became a secularised museum in 1948. The interior of the building is covered with fine mosaics and frescoes.

 

Kariye museum

Kariye from thomb’s door

Kariye museum

Chora Church, Kariye Müzesi, Kariye museum

Chora church

Chora church

Chora Church

Kariye müzesi

Kariye

Chora church

Kariye müzesi

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History of Chora Church
The Chora Church was originally built outside the walls of Constantinople, to the south of the Golden Horn. Literally translated, the church’s full name was the Church of the Holy Saviour in the Country: although “The Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Fields” would be a more natural rendering of the name in English. (Greek ἡ Ἐκκλησία του Ἅγιου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῃ Χώρᾳ, hē Ekklēsia tou Hagiou Sōtēros en tē Chōra). The last part of that name, Chora, referring to its location originally outside of the walls, became the shortened name of the church. The original church on this site was built in the early 5th century, and stood outside of the 4th century walls of Constantine the Great. However, when Theodosius II built his formidable land walls in 413–414, the church became incorporated within the city’s defences, but retained the name Chora. The name must have carried symbolic meaning, as the mosaics in the narthex describe Christ as the Land of the Living (ἡ Χώρα των ζώντων, hē Chōra tōn zōntōn) and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the Container of the Uncontainable (ἡ Χώρα του Ἀχώρητου, hē Chōra tou Achōrētou).

The majority of the fabric of the current building dates from 1077–1081, when Maria Dukaina, the mother-in-law of Alexius I Comnenus, rebuilt the Chora Church as an inscribed cross or quincunx: a popular architectural style of the time. Early in the 12th century, the church suffered a partial collapse, perhaps due to an earthquake. The church was rebuilt by Isaac Comnenus, Alexius’s third son. However, it was only after the third phase of building, two centuries after, that the church as it stands today was completed. The powerful Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites endowed the church with much of its fine mosaics and frescos. Theodore’s impressive decoration of the interior was carried out between 1315 and 1321. The mosaic-work is the finest example of the Palaeologian Renaissance. The artists remain unknown. In 1328, Theodore was sent into exile by the usurper Andronicus III Palaeologus. However, he was allowed to return to the city two years later, and lived out the last two years of his life as a monk in his Chora Church.

During the last siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria, considered the protector of the City, was brought to Chora in order to assist the defenders against the assault of the Ottomans.

Around fifty years after the fall of the city to the Ottomans, Atık Ali Paşa, the Grand Vizier of Sultan Bayezid II, ordered the Chora Church to be converted into a mosque — Kariye Camii. Due to the prohibition against iconic images in Islam, the mosaics and frescoes were covered behind a layer of plaster. This and frequent earthquakes in the region have taken their toll on the artwork.

In 1948, Thomas Whittemore and Paul A. Underwood, from the Byzantine Institute of America and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, sponsored a programme of restoration. From that time on, the building ceased to be a functioning mosque. In 1958, it was opened to the public as a museum — Kariye Müzesi.

Interior of Chora Church
The Chora Church is not as large as some of the other Byzantine churches of Istanbul (it covers 742.5 m²), but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in the beauty of its interior. The building divides into three main areas: the entrance hall or narthex, the main body of the church or naos, and the side chapel or parecclesion. The building has six domes: two in the esonarthex, one in the parecclesion and three in the naos.