19th century Greek churches of Mudanya

Abstract

Until 1924, the majority of the population of Mudanya, one of the towns that Ottomans first conquered in Bithynia (1321), was composed of Greeks. The existence of many Greek churches in Mudanya is known both from written sources and from surviving buildings. Two of the ten churches rebuilt are used as cultural centers. The walls of the three churches whose roofs have been destroyed are about to collapse. Only one of the other five churches has extant with a height of about one meter. In the Ottoman period, except for the exceptions, the new church was not built until the 19th century, the churches belonging to the Byzantine and pre 19th-century Ottoman periods were repaired to and used with the permission of the sultan. Owing to the reform brought by the Edicts of Tanzimat (1839) and Islahat (1856), the foundations of small-size churches that were demolished were rebuilt on a larger scale. In the Ottoman archives, the documents related to these churches include the reasons for reconstruction, their size, the cost of construction and how this cost will be met, as well as the community population that will use the church, as well as the ground floor plan and front view drawings of some churches. All of the Greek churches in Mudanya have basilica plan, door and window openings with round arches, as well as columns, arches and inner roofs of the naos, have been constructed of wood. The facade arrangement and decorations of the church buildings in Mudanya which have close similarities with the contemporary Greek churches of Bursa and Istanbul, are in eclectic style.