Paul Antonopoulos 🇬🇷🇨🇾 Profile picture
GCT. PhD Candidate. From the diaspora.

Jan 23, 14 tweets

When Greece became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, and as Greece expanded over the next century, the long task of reverting mosques into churches.

Here are some of the reverted churches:

Agios Demetrios church in Thessaloniki, constructed in the early 4th century AD, became a mosque in 1493 but was finally reconsecrated into a church in 1949.

Hagia Sophia Church in Monemvasia dates to about 1150 but turned into a mosque in 1715. Repair works to turn it into a church again began in 1827.

Hagia Sophia in Mystras was constructed in the 1300's, was converted into a mosque at an undisclosed date during the Ottoman occupation (from the 1400's onwards, unntil being converted into a church almost immediately after Greece's independence in 1830.

Agios Spyridon church in Rhodes was constructed in the 1200's, turned into a mosque after the Ottomans captured the island in 1522, but turned back into a church after the Ottomans were booted. The minaret still survives.

Church of Panagia Chalkeon in Thessaloniki was constructed in 1028, became a mosque after the Ottomans captured the city in 1430, but was restored in 1934.

Holy Trinity church in Rhodes was built between 1365 and 1374 as a Catholic church, converted into a mosque under the name Khan Zade Mescidi by the Ottomans, then turned into an Orthodox church when the island was annexed by Greece after World War II.

The Church of Prophet Elijah in Thessaloniki was constructed in the 1300s, turned into a mosque immediately after the Ottomans captured the city in 1430, and restored again after liberation in the early 1900s.

Church of Saint Nicholas in Chania was originally a Catholic church built at around 1320, converted into a mosque during Ottoman occupation, and in 1918 was turned into an Orthodox Church.

Panagia tou Kastrou in Rhodes was constructed in about the 1000's, was converted into a mosque when the Ottomans captured the island in 1522, and converted back into a Christian church when the Italians held Rhodes in 1912.

Pammegistoi Taxiarches church in Thessaloniki was built in the 1300's, became a mosque when the Ottomans captured the city in 1430, and became a church again in 1912.

Church of Saint Catherine in Thessaloniki was constructed in the 13th or 14th century, converted to a mosque by Yakup Pasha in the reign of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512) and named after him Yakup Pasha Mosque, and was restored to a church after Thessaloniki was liberated in 1912.

The Church of Hagia Sophia in Drama was constructed in the 10th-century, converted by the Ottomans into a mosque named Bey Camii in 1430, and turned back into a church when Drama was liberated in 1913.

The Church of Hosios David was constructed in the late 5th-century in Thessaloniki, converted into a mosque when the Ottomans invaded the city in the 15th century, and reconsecrated as a Greek Orthodox church in 1921, less than a decade after the city was liberated.

The Church of Saint Panteleimon was built in the 14th century in Thessaloniki, was converted into a mosque ca. 1500 and named after the city's Ottoman kadı (judge) Ishak Çelebi, and restored as a church when the city was liberated in 1912.

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