Veli Pasha Mosque (Ioannina)

The Veli Pasha Mosque (Greek: Τζαμί του Βελή Πασά, from Turkish: Veli Paşa Camii) is an Ottoman building located in the Greek town of Ioannina, in the northwest region of Epirus. The mosque was renovated at the turn of the 19th century by Veli Pasha of Ioannina and formed a complex consisting in particular of a madrasa and kitchens. Today it is no longer open for worship.

Veli Pasha Mosque
Religion
Affiliation	Islam
District	Ioannina
Province	Epirus
Status	Closed
Location
Location	Ioannina, Greece
Municipality	Ioannina
State	Greece
Shown within Greece
Geographic coordinates	39°39′51″N 20°51′19″E / 39.66417°N 20.85528°E / 39.66417; 20.85528
Architecture
Type	Mosque
Completed	16th century
Specifications
Dome(s)	1
Minaret(s)	1 (destroyed)
Materials	Stone

History

 

View of the mosque from the southeast, madrassa in the background.

A first small mosque for daily prayer (masjid) was erected on the site of a Byzantine church dedicated to Saint Stephen,^[1][2] to the south-west of the hill of Litharitsia,^[3] about 500 meters from the Ioannina Castle. The date of construction of this primitive building is uncertain, historians suggest early^[4] (slightly after 1617^[2]) or late seventeenth century.^[5] According to documents from 1670, the mosque then bore the name of its founder, Bali Kethuda. It was subsequently called the “Tsiekour mosque”, in reference to the surrounding district.^[1]

Ali Pasha of Ioannina, the semi-autonomous ruler of the Epirus region at the turn of the 19th century, had seraglios built in the area of the mosque for his first two sons, Mukhtar and Veli. The latter, who was notably beylerbey of Rumelia^[6] and governor of the Morea,^[7][8] founded a religious institution there in a waqf dating to 1804.^[9] A large landowner,^[10] he had a new mosque, a madrasa, kitchens and ancillary buildings built, notably housing a library and a khan.^[9][11][12]

Following the departure of Ottoman power in 1913 after Greece's annexation of Ioannina and the greater region of Epirus in the First Balkan War, the mosque became a barracks and its minaret was destroyed around 1930,^[5] before being seized by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports. The building was returned to the municipality of Ioannina and restored in 1978–1979 and 1983 by the 8th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities.^[1][13] The madrasa of the mosque housed the city's Museum of National Resistance, but it was removed in 2021, and when the building was scheduled for restoration under the auspices of the Municipality of Ioannina.^[13]

Architecture

The mosque has a prayer hall of 6 × 6.5 m.,^[14] surmounted by a dome whose octagonal drum rests on four squinches. To the north there is a porch that was initially open and crowned with three small domes, which was probably walled up after the construction of the building. The minaret, of which only the base remains today, is housed on the western façade between the porch and the prayer room. The masonry is characterized by a pseudo-isodom apparatus in cut stone, while the main dome and the roof of the porch are covered with slates.^[1][15]

Inside, elements of a rich marble mihrab are preserved.^[1][15] The kitchen building and the madrassa remain today to the north of the mosque. The old Quranic school houses the National Defense Museum of Ioannina.^[16]

See also

•  Islam portal
•  Greece portal
•  Architecture portal

• Islam in Greece
• List of former mosques in Greece
• List of mosques in Greece
• Ottoman Greece

References

1. Ministry of Culture and Sports. "Το τζαμί του Βελή πασά" [Mosque of Veli Pasha]. www.odysseus.culture.gr (in Greek). Retrieved March 14, 2022.
2. Tassi 2017, p. 97.
3. Demetracopoulou 2009, p. 174.
4. Pantazis, Georgios; Lambrou, Evangelia (2009). "Investigating the orientation of eleven mosques in Greece". Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 12 (2): 159–166. Bibcode:2009JAHH...12..159P. ISSN 1440-2807.
5. Vrakas 2007, p. 66.
6. Michael, Michael N.; Gavriel, Eutychios; Kappler, Matthias (2009). Ottoman Cyprus: A Collection of Studies on History and Culture. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 175. ISBN 978-3447058995.
7. Neumeier 2017, p. 135.
8. Davenport, Richard Alfred (1837). The Life of Ali Pasha , of Tepeleni, vizier of Epirus, surnamed Aslan, or the Lion. London: T. Tegg and Son. p. 194. ISBN 978-5-87444-417-4.
9. Neumeier 2017, p. 154.
10. Holland, Henry (1815). Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia, etc. During the Years 1812 and 1913. London: Longman. p. 262.
11. Mikropoulos 2008, p. 389.
12. Neumeier, Mary (2016). The Architectural Transformation Of The Ottoman Provinces Under Tepedelenli Ali Pasha, 1788-1822 (Thesis). University of Pennsylvania. pp. 160 and 161.
13. Halatsi, Georgia (27 May 2021). "Προς παραχώρηση στον δήμο Ιωαννιτών το Βελή Τζαμί" (in Greek). Ipeirotikos Agon. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
14. Smyris 2000, p. 42.
15. Mikropoulos 2008, p. 388.
16. Tassi 2017, pp. 75–76.

Bibliography

• Demetracopoulou, Polyxena (2009). "Veli Pasha complex". In Ersi Brouskari (ed.). Ottoman Architecture in Greece. Translated by Elizabeth Key Fowden. Athens: Ministry of Culture and Sports. pp. 174–175. ISBN 9789602147931..
• Mikropoulos, Tasos (2008). Elevating and safeguarding culture using tools of the information society: dusty traces of the muslim culture. Earthlab. ISBN 978-960-233-187-3.
• Neumeier, Emily (2017). "Rivaling Elgin: Ottoman Governors and Architectural Agency in the Morea". In Benjamin Anderson; Felipe Rojas (eds.). Antiquarianisms: Contact, Conflict, Comparison. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 134–161. ISBN 978-1-78570-687-5. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
• Plagou, Angeliki (2016). Περιφέρεια Ηπείρου: Περιφερειακή Ενότητα Ιωαννίνων: Όπου η Ομορφιά Περισσεύει [Epirus Region: Ioannina Regional Unit: Where Beauty Abounds] (in Greek). London: AKAKIA Publications. ISBN 978-1-911352-35-8. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
• Prountzos, Athanasios (2004). Ο Προσανατολισμός των μουσουλμανικών Τεμενών Καλούτσιανης και Βελή Πασά στα Ιωάννινα [The Orientation of the Muslim Mosques Kaloutsiani and Veli Pasha at Ioannina] (in Greek). Athens: National Technical University of Athens.
• Pyrsinellas, Vasileios (1959). "Ιστορία της πόλεως των Ιωαννίνων" [History of the Town of Ioannina]. Ηπειρωτική Εστία (in Greek). 8: 762–763.
• Smyris, Georgios (2000). "Τα μουσουλμανικά τζαμιά των Ιωαννίνων και η πολεοδομία της Οθωμανικής Πόλης" [The Muslim Mosques of Ioannina and the Urban Plan of the Ottoman Town]. Ηπειρωτικά Χρονικά (in Greek). 34: 9–90. ISSN 1108-4758.
• Tassi, Konstantina (2017). Οι Μουσουλμάνοι των Ιωαννίνων: από την Αυτοκρατορία στο Έθνος κράτος 1913-1923 [The Muslims of Ioannina: from the Empire to the Nation-state (1913-1923)] (in Greek). University of Ioannina. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
• Vrakas, Fotis (2007). Η Ήπειρος του χτες – Η Ήπειρος της οθωμανικής περιόδου 15ος - 20ος [Epirus of the Past — Epirus of the Ottoman period 15th-20st centuries] (in Greek).