Eski Imaret Mosque

The Eski Imaret Mosque in Zeyrek is the only surviving 11th-century church in Istanbul and a key document of middle-Byzantine architecture. It was built around 1085 as the main church of the Christ Pantepoptes monastery by Anna Dalassene, mother of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The four-column cross-in-square plan shows typical Komnenian brickwork patterns and pseudo-Kufic friezes on the exterior. After the Ottoman conquest of 1453, Mehmed II turned the complex into a soup kitchen (imaret) and mosque for the workers building the nearby Fatih Mosque. The simple interior is again open after extensive restoration, and the slope above the Golden Horn offers a fine view toward Galata.