Mosques in Athens

Mosques in Athens

Several mosques had been erected during the last years of the Ottoman rule. Tzisdaraki Mosque, in Monastiraki square, Fetihe Mosque in the Roman market, Softa Mosque on Mitropoleos and Kapnikareas street, Yeni Mosque on Voulis and Nikodimou street, Kioutsouk Mosque on Panos street, Parthenon’s Mosque, the column Mosque on Andrianou street and another one somewhere in the north suburb, Kifisia.

The column’s Mosque |Andrianou 106-108, Plaka

The 74th Elementary school of Athens lies where used to be a mosque which took it’s name due to a Roman marble column which had been incorporated in it’s construction. This column is still there, in the school’s basement.

Kioutsouk Mosque (ruins) | Panos and Thrasivoulou, Roman market

It’s name means small in Turkish and it was indeed really small. Nowadays only it’s substructure and the minaret’s base are left.

Tzisdaraki Mosque | Areos 1, Monastiraki

Or mosque of the “lower fountain”, is the mosque of Monastiraki square, with Acropolis in the background. According to the sign, which is still preserved in it’s entrance, it was built in 1759 by Tzistaraki, the Voevod of Athens, in an region known as the “Lower Flea Market”. During it’s construction Tzistarakis had an idea - which eventually cost his life - to melt a pillar from the classical temple of Olympion (others say it was from the Hadrian’s Library) so to use it in the building process. Bad luck hit him like an ancient Greek tragedy, Halkida’s Voevod turned him in to the Sultan and Tzistardakis was banished and then assassinated. After the end of the Ottoman occupation the mosque has been used as a venue for military musicians, prison and warehouse, since 1975 it has been hosting the rich ceramics collection of professor V. Kiriazopoulos.

Fethiye Mosque |Northern side of Roman Market

Also known as “Conqueror’s Mosque” since it was constructed due to the visit of Mohammad B the Conqueror in 1458, in Athens. It’s preserved version had been constructed in 1670, to commemorate Crete’s conquest, which was a great importance incident for the Ottomans.

It is Athens’s oldest mosque of exquisite elegance and architectural order similar with Istanbul’s famous “Blue” mosque, with clear influences from Hagia Sofia.

It was also called Mosque of the “Wheat Flea Market” since there operated the cereal market. Built on the ruins of an old church, it combines materials and elements from older constructions, it even has classical Ionic capitals. The Venetian general Morosini, during his five month occupation, had turned it into a catholic church and it was also used as a school. Since 1834, when Athens became the capital of the Greek state and until the end of the 20th century it was also used as a bakery.