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Zeyrek Mosque () or the Monastery of the Pantocrator (; ), is a large mosque on the Fazilet Street in the Zeyrek district of Fatih in Istanbul, overlooking the Golden Horn. It is made up of two former Byzantine Empire churches and a chapel joined together and represents the best example of Middle Byzantine architecture in Constantinople. After Hagia Sophia, it is the largest Byzantine religious edifice still standing in Istanbul.
It is less than 1 km to the southeast of Eski Imaret Mosque, another Byzantine church that was turned into a mosque.
East of the complex is an Ottoman Konak which has been restored and opened as a restaurant and tea garden called Zeyrekhane.
After the death of his wife, shortly after 1134, Emperor John II Komnenos built another church to the north of the first one which was dedicated to the Theotokos Eleousa (Merciful Mother of God). This church was open to the population and served by a lay clergy. By 1136 at the latest a southern courtyard and an exonarthex were added to the complex, and the two shrines were connected with a chapel dedicated to Saint Michael,Mathews (1976), p. 71 which became the imperial mausoleum ( heroon) of the Komnenos and Palaiologos dynasties. Besides many other Byzantine dignitaries, the Emperor John II and his wife Eirene, and Empress Bertha of Sulzbach (also known as Eirene), the wife of Manuel I Komnenos, were buried here.Gülersoy (1976), p. 213
During the period of Latin Empire after the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the complex fell into the hands of the Venice clergy, and an icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria was housed here.Van Millingen (1912), p. 227 The monastery was also used as an imperial palace by the last Latin Empire, Baldwin.
After the Palaiologos restoration, the monastery was once again used by Orthodox monks. The most famous of them was Gennadius II Scholarius, who left the Pantokrator to become the first Patriarch of Constantinople after the Muslim conquest of the city in 1453.Van Millingen (1912), p. 232
By the early 21st century the edifice had become very rundown and partly ruinous as a result of which it was added to the UNESCO watchlist of endangered monuments. Extensive and sometimes controversial restoration has now been completed and the mosque reopened for prayer.Ahunbay (2001), passim
The south and the north churches are both cross-shaped with central and polygonal with seven sides rather than the five that had been typical in the Byzantine architecture of the previous century. The apses also feature triple flanked by niches.
The southern church is the largest. To the east, it has an Narthex, which was eventually extended right up to the imperial chapel. The church is surmounted by two domes, one over the Cella and the other over the matroneum (a separate upper gallery for women) of the narthex. Once very rich, the decoration of the church has disappeared almost completely, bar some marble fragments in the presbyterium. The historical opus sectile floor made from coloured marble worked in a cloisonné technique, with human and animal figures represented, is currently covered by a modern carpet. Fragments of coloured glass found here suggest that the windows were once filled with stained glass with figures of saints.Krautheimer (1986), p. 410 Mosaics representing the apostles and the life of Christ were still visible - although defaced - in the 18th century.Ronchey (2009), p. 576.
The imperial chapel is covered by and surmounted by two domes.
The north church has only one dome, and is notable for the frieze carved with dog's tooth and triangle motifs running along the eaves.
Near the mosque is the Şeyh Süleyman Mescidi, a small Byzantine building that probably belonged to the Pantokrator Monastery. It may have housed a library, although that is not certain.
In its entirety, this monastic complex is the best example of Middle Byzantine architecture to survive in Istanbul
==Gallery==
Ottoman and Republican period
Shortly after the Fall of Constantinople the main church was converted into a mosque, while the monastery served for a while as a medrese.Eyice (1955), p. 58 The Ottoman Empire named it after Molla Zeyrek, a scholar who taught there. However, because of its importance to Byzantine history, Zeyrek was one of the few buildings of Constantinople whose old denomination was never forgotten and was written about by foreign visitors including the French traveller Petrus Gyllius who described it in his book about Constantinople, written in the sixteenth century. After the completion of the medreses in the Fatih Mosque in 1471, Muslim students abandoned Zeyrek,Ahunbay (2001), p. 118 and the rooms once occupied by the school vanished.Gülersoy (1976), p. 213
Architecture
The masonry has been partly built using the recessed brick technique typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period.Krautheimer (1986), p. 400. Another example of edifices of Constantinople where this technique was used is the mosque of Eski Imaret In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall in a mortar bed. The thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the brick layers.The oldest building still extant in Istanbul where this technique can still be seen is the mosque of Eski Imaret, which lies less than one km to the northwest of Zeyrek
See also
Notes
(2025). 9789004116252, Brill. ISBN 9789004116252
(2025). 9788806189211, Einaudi. ISBN 9788806189211
Further reading
External links
Categories: Buildings And Structures Completed In 1124, Churches Completed In The 1120s, 12th-century Eastern Orthodox Church Buildings, Mosques Converted From Byzantine Churches, Mosques Converted From Churches In Istanbul, Mosque Buildings With Domes In Turkey, Fatih, Historic Sites In Turkey, Buildings And Structures Completed In 1453, Mosques Completed In The 1450s, Church Buildings With Domes, Byzantine Church Buildings In Istanbul, Byzantine Monasteries In Turkey
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