Fethiye Mosque & the Pammakaristos Mosaics
Why is it significant?
In front of you stands a Byzantine church wearing a minaret: walls of brick and stone laid in stripes, rows of small arched windows, domes like upturned bowls. This is the Fethiye Mosque, which for most of its life was the Church of the Pammakaristos, the All-Blessed Mother of God.
Key Facts
| Place | Fethiye Mosque & the Pammakaristos Mosaics |
|---|---|
| Address | Fethiye Kapısı Sokak, Balat, 34087 Fatih/İstanbul, Türkiye |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.02910, 28.94640 |
| Part of Walk | Neighbours of the Golden Horn: Fener, Balat and Istanbul's Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Bulgarian Quarters |
| Generated | Generated |
In front of you stands a Byzantine church wearing a minaret: walls of brick and stone laid in stripes, rows of small arched windows, domes like upturned bowls. This is the Fethiye Mosque, which for most of its life was the Church of the Pammakaristos, the All-Blessed Mother of God.
It was built as a monastery church in the Byzantine centuries, and around 1310 it gained an exquisite side chapel, commissioned by Maria, the widow of the general Michael Glabas Tarchaneiotes, to hold his tomb. Then came 1453. Hagia Sophia became a mosque, and the patriarch moved first to the Church of the Holy Apostles and then, in 1456, here. For more than a century, this building was the heart of the Orthodox world.
In 1587 the patriarch had to leave, and in 1591 Sultan Murad the Third turned the church into a mosque. He named it Fethiye, the Mosque of Conquest, to celebrate his campaigns in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Inner walls and arcades were knocked through to make one wide prayer hall. The patriarchate wandered between churches for a few years before settling at St George's in Fener, where you stood earlier.
But the side chapel survived, and it has long been kept as a museum. Step inside and look up into its small dome: Christ Pantokrator, ringed by twelve prophets, glinting gold after seven hundred years. In the apse, Christ Hyperagathos, the Supremely Good, flanked by the Virgin and John the Baptist. Together with Hagia Sophia and the Chora, where this walk ends, it is one of the richest treasuries of late Byzantine mosaic in the city, and often you will have it almost to yourself.
One building, two faiths, one wall between them. Before you leave, walk round the outside and look closely at the brickwork, where the Byzantine masons laid bricks in little patterns and bands, like a signature. Then head downhill, north-east, into Balat, where the houses start putting on their colours.