Faik Pasha Mosque: An Ottoman Mosque and Charitable Complex in Arta, Greece
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Greece
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Ottoman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page7 sections
History
Faik Pasha Mosque is an Ottoman-period monument in Greece, near Arta on the right bank of the Arachthos River. Built during the Ottoman period, probably in 1492–1493 under Sultan Bayezid II, it formed the centre of a religious and charitable institution established by Faik Pasha, the Ottoman conqueror of Arta in 1449 and a high-ranking government official.
Foundation and charitable institution
The mosque’s construction date remains uncertain. A tradition recorded by Seraphim of Arta places its construction around 1455, during the reign of Mehmed II, the Ottoman sultan who ruled in the mid-fifteenth century. A later dating to 1492–1493 is more strongly supported by a reference from around 1478 that describes the mosque as still being planned, together with the foundation charter of Faik Pasha’s institution from 1493.
Faik Pasha created a wider institution that included an imaret, an Ottoman charitable establishment distributing food and sometimes providing accommodation, as well as a madrasa for Islamic religious and scholarly education, a khan, and a hammam, or public bath. The institution operated as a waqf, a legally established charitable endowment whose revenues from land and property supported religious, educational, and welfare functions.
Its income came from agricultural lands at Vigla and Marati, areas now partly within Polydroso of Arta, together with properties near Thessaloniki and Giannitsa. Before the Ottoman conquest, the lands at Vigla and Marati belonged to the Monastery of Panagia Rodiá. Faik Pasha appropriated most of them to finance the mosque and its associated institutions. The charitable complex gave the surrounding settlement the name Marati, derived from the Ottoman-era Muslim community connected with the imaret.
Ottoman use and later conflicts
An oral tradition states that Faik Pasha appointed an imam, or prayer leader, but later took on the office himself after the imam died and no suitable replacement could be found. He is said to have served as imam for about forty years, until his death in 1499. A funerary plaque found in the area records that year.
The land around the mosque was used as a cemetery for a long period. In the Ottoman era, the wider area was called Top-Alti, a name referring to the zone within cannon range of Arta Castle. Descriptions of the surrounding landscape mention hazelnut trees, Persian reeds, olive trees, lemon trees, and orange trees.
The mosque and its surroundings became a battlefield during the siege of Arta in the Greek War of Independence, the conflict through which Greek forces challenged Ottoman rule. On 12 November 1821, Markos Botsaris, Georgios Karaiskakis, and several hundred men were associated with fighting in the area and resisted attacks by the Ottoman garrison before Ottoman troops were driven back toward Arta.
The area saw further fighting during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Greek forces commanded by Colonel Thrasyvoulos Manos confronted Ottoman troops under Ahmed Hifzi Pasha. In May 1897, the first armistice on the Epirus front was signed in the Imaret area and formally confirmed in Arta on 3 June.
Conversion and conservation
After the liberation of Arta, the mosque was converted into a church dedicated to Saint John the Russian. It ceased to function as a church shortly before 1913. A royal decree protected the building as a historic site in 1938, and it forms part of Greece’s protected archaeological heritage.
Excavations and restoration in 1994 revealed architectural pieces from the collapsed porch and restored the paved floor. General restoration studies received approval in late 2019, and restoration work was put out to tender in summer 2022. The Eighth Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture and Sports is responsible for the site.
Remains
Faik Pasha Mosque stands near the Arachthos River, close to Marati, Marathovouni, and the village of Grammenitsa, approximately 1.5 kilometres north of the Bridge of Arta. The surviving monument is a compact, single-domed building constructed with cloisonné masonry, in which stone blocks are framed by brick courses. The mosque, its surviving minaret, and the remains of the nearby hammam preserve parts of the former institutional complex.
Prayer hall and minaret
The mosque follows a simple Type A Ottoman plan, meaning that a square prayer hall forms the centre of a single-domed design. The hall’s exterior sides measure 11.5 metres. Its dome rests on a drum decorated with triangular transition elements known as Turkish triangles, which help connect the square chamber to the rounded dome.
The building incorporates stone and other architectural materials taken from the Byzantine Church of Panagia Parigoritissa, ancient Nicopolis, and ancient structures at Ambracia. Archaeological evidence indicates that the mosque was probably built over the remains of a Byzantine church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.
A column-supported porch once stood along the north side at the principal entrance. The porch collapsed, but surviving portions and architectural members remain visible. Some of its elements came from the nearby Monastery of Panagia Pantanassa, founded in the mid-thirteenth century by Michael II Doukas.
A cylindrical brick minaret rises from a square base at the mosque’s northwest corner and survives as far as the balcony. It was probably reconstructed for the final time during the nineteenth century. Inside, the building preserves traces of both phases of religious use. The mihrab, the prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca, occupies the centre of the southern wall, while remains of an iconostasis, the screen separating the sanctuary from the nave in an Eastern Christian church, can be seen on the eastern wall.
Hammam and complex remains
The surviving remains of the hammam lie several tens of metres northwest of the mosque. They are the remaining physical traces of the bath within Faik Pasha’s monumental complex and complement the mosque’s evidence for the institution’s religious and charitable functions.
Nearby sites
