The lost mosque

The Yeri Pazar Meydan mosque was located in the central square of Xanthi, and the famous clock tower was a part of it. Around the square there were also an imaret (poorhouse), a seminary, the seat of the “Kaymakam” (high rank official of the Ottoman Empire) and a bathhouse, which, together with the mosque, created a religious and administrative complex in this area, the so called “külliye”. During the first Bulgarian occupation, in 1912, the mosque was converted into a church, and in 1913 it was given back to the Muslim community of the city. It was eventually burnt down and then demolished during the second Bulgarian occupation, somewhere around 1941-44. Apart from the clock tower, none of the other buildings survive today. Only the inscription was saved from the ornate entrance of the mosque depicted in the photo, which is now kept in the neighboring Sunne mosque.

Creator: Unknown
Source: “Thrace’s Chronicles” Magazine, issue 5, 1991, p.19