I went back to Istanbul at the beginning of June this year. Naturally, Pammakaristos Monastery was on my list, so I went there while I was exploring the Balat neighbourhood. As you can see in these photos, they completed the restoration works earlier this year. However, I could only see the mosque part of this building.
To my disappointment, the museum located in the parekklesion was closed. If you follow this official link, you will see that they are currently restoring it and that it’s closed until further notice.
SHORT HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY
The Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos founded the Pammakaristos Monastery during his reign. Therefore, this middle Byzantine church belongs to the Komnenian period within the Byzantine history.
The Latin Empire seized to exist in 1261 when the Byzantines recaptured Constantinople from the leaders of the Fourth Crusade. The protostrator Glabas, who now owned the monastery, arranged extensive restorative works. After his death in 1305, his widow built the parekklesion.
Parekklesion means a chapel. So, this chapel is a museum and the most interesting part of this Byzantine structure that you would want to see.
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman army, Pammakaristos Monastery was the seat of the Patriarchate for 134 years. However, during the reign of Sultan Murad III, it became the Fethiye Mosque in 1587.
Fethiye means conquest. Conversion of the Christian Orthodox monastery into a mosque was meant to celebrate the Ottoman conquest of Georgia. If you think about, it’s surprising that this monastery lasted as a Christian temple for such a long time. It was the time of a rapid expansion of the Turkish state, with many countries and geographical areas becoming parts of the Ottoman Empire.
Sultan Selim I conquered the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt in 1517 and expanded the empire by 70%. His son, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, conquered Belgrade in 1521, Rhodes in 1523 and most of Hungary after the battle of Mohacs in 1525. Still, they didn’t convert the Pammakaristos Monastery into a mosque to commemorate any of these significant military victories.
PAMMAKARISTOS HAS GONE TO FETHIYE
You can see the interior structure of the mosque part in this post. It was open to the public when I went there at the beginning of June. It’s a functioning and, at the same time, a very beautiful mosque.
I believe that, without knowing its history, you would easily guess that this was a church in the past. All Ottoman purposefully built mosques follow, more or less, the same architectural style.
Pammakaristos in Greek means superior or almighty. Fethiye is a very famous summer resort on the Mediterranean sea, in addition to meaning conquest.
Thus, from one of the most famous Byzantine churches, Pammakaristos Monastery is now the Fethyie Mosque.
This post is very much work in progress. Hopefully, they will finish restoration works on the museum before I go back to Istanbul. Then, I will up-date this article with photos of magnificent Byzantine mosaics that can be seen in this mosque’s chapel.
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