| Pammakaristos Church | |
|---|---|
Μονή Παμμακάριστου Fethiye Camii | |
.jpg) Pammakaristos Church | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Islam (currently) Greek Orthodox Church (previously) |
| Location | |
| Location | Istanbul,Turkey |
  Location within theFatih district of Istanbul | |
| Geographic coordinates | 41°01′45″N28°56′47″E / 41.02917°N 28.94639°E /41.02917; 28.94639 |
| Architecture | |
| Type | Church |
| Style | Byzantine architecture,Greek architecture,Islamic architecture |
| Minaret | 2 |
The Pammakaristos Church, also known as theChurch ofTheotokos Pammakaristos (Greek:Θεοτόκος ἡ Παμμακάριστος, "All-Blessed Mother of God"), is one of the most famousByzantine church buildings inIstanbul,Turkey, and was the last pre-Ottoman building to house theEcumenical Patriarchate. Converted in 1591 into theFethiye Mosque (Turkish:Fethiye Camii, "mosque of the conquest"), it is today partly a museum housed in a side chapel orparekklesion. One of the most important examples ofConstantinople'sPalaiologan architecture, the mosque contains the largest quantity ofByzantinemosaics in Istanbul after theHagia Sophia andThe Chora.
The mosque-museum is in theÇarşamba neighbourhood of theFatih district inside thewalled city ofold Istanbul.
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_-_S._Antonio_-_Foto_G._Dall%2527Orto_26-5-2006.jpg)
Most scholars believe that the church was built between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Many historians and archaeologists attribute the original structure toMichael VII Ducas (1071–1078); others put its foundation in theComnenian period.[1] Alternatively, the Swiss scholar and ByzantinistErnest Mamboury suggested that the original building belonged to the 8th century.[2]
Theparekklesion (side chapel) was added to the south side of the church in the earlyPalaiologan period, and dedicated toChristos ho Logos (Greek:Christ the Word).[3] Shortly after 1310, Martha Glabas erected a small shrine in memory of her late husband, theprotostratorMichael Doukas Glabas Tarchaneiote, a general ofAndronikos II Palaiologos.[4] An elegant dedicatory inscription to Christ, written by the poetManuel Philes, runs along the inside and outside of the parekklesion.
The main church was also renovated at the same time, as the study of theTemplon has shown.[4]
Following theconquest of Constantinople in 1453, the seat of theGreek Orthodox Patriarchate was first moved fromHagia Sophia to theChurch of the Holy Apostles. Then in 1456 it was moved to the Theotokos Pammakaristos Church, where it remained until 1587.[5] Thesynod of 1484, in which thecouncil of Ferrara-Florence was condemned, took place in this church.[6]
Five years later, theOttoman SultanMurad III converted the church into a mosque and renamed it in honor of his conquest (fetih) ofGeorgia andAzerbaijan, hence the nameFethiye Camii. To accommodate the requirements of prayer, most of the interior walls were removed to create a larger inner space.
After years of neglect, the complex was restored in 1949 by theByzantine Institute of America andDumbarton Oaks.[1] While the main building remains a mosque, the parekklesion has been a museum since then.[7]
In 2021 restoration work on the building began again.[8] The mosque was opened for prayer in 2022, and the restoration was completed in 2024 with an official opening for visitors.[9]
The Comnenian building was a church with a main aisle and twodeambulatoria,[10] threeapses, and anarthex to the west. Themasonry was typical of the Comnenian period, and used therecessed brick technique. In this technique, alternate courses of brick are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar's bed, which can still be seen in thecistern underneath and in the church.[1] Its unusual plan in which the central space in enwrapped by theambulatory stretching down both sides as well as the usual main exit/entrance west end, has been speculated by architectural historians such as Ousterhout to maximize the amount of burial space near the central space, the naos.[11]
The transformation of the church into a mosque greatly changed the original building. The arcades connecting the mainaisle with the deambulatoria were removed and replaced with broad arches to open up the nave. The three apses were removed too. In their place towards the east a great domed room was built at an oblique angle to the orientation of the building.
On the other side, the parekklesion represents what is sometimes considered the most beautiful building of the late Byzantine period inConstantinople. It has the typicalcross-in-square plan with five domes, but the proportion between vertical and horizontal dimensions is much more attenuated than usual (although not so big as in the contemporary Byzantine churches built in the Balkans).
Although the inner colored marble revetment largely disappeared, the shrine still contains the restored remains of a number ofmosaic panels, which, while not as varied and well-preserved as those of the Chora Church, serve as another resource for understanding late Byzantine art.
A representation of thePantocrator, surrounded by the prophets of theOld Testament (Moses,Jeremiah,Zephaniah,Micah,Joel,Zechariah,Obadiah,Habakkuk,Jonah,Malachi,Ezekiel, andIsaiah) fills the main dome. In the apse, Christ Hyperagathos is shown with theVirgin Mary andSt. John the Baptist. ABaptism ofChrist survives intact to the right side of the dome.
In the building with the Fethiye Museum (with an entrance in the street passing the garden where the entrance to the museum is) a part is still a mosque. Here are some pictures of its interior
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