Aslan Pasha Mosque
Ioannina, Greece

The Aslan Pasha Mosque, one of the most important mosques of Ioannina, was built in the early seventeenth century by Aslan Pasha of Monodendri Zagoriou. According to tradition, it is built on the site of the Byzantine church of Agios Ioannis, in the northeastern section of the citadel, as part of a complex including a madrasa.

The prayer hall is square in plan and covered by a high hemispherical dome, supported on pendentives at the corners of the walls. An open portico runs along the western side of the hall, with marble columns reused from an unidentified early Christian or Byzantine church. A colonnaded portico, originally open but now closed in by a low walls pierced with large windows, runs around the western, southern, and northern sides. The southern portico sits over six deep stone vaults with stone basins used for ablutions.

In in the interior, the mosque's original painted and carved decoration is well-preserved. The mihrab is at the east end of the hall and has muqarnas decoration and polychrome patterns. The stone minbar stands near the mihrab and retains its intricate painted decoration. The central medallion of the dome is intricately painted, and a small band of plaster stalactites runs around the dome's base, with similar decoration in the corners of the hall, and elaborate painting surrounding the windows. A wooden balcony is on the west side of the hall, supported on two marble columns and reached by a stone staircase in the southeast corner that also leads to the minaret.

A cemetery surrounds the mosque. To its east is an eight-sided mausoleum sometimes attributed to Ali Pasha but mostly likely belonging to Aslan Pasha. Ornate painted decoration remains extant in the interior.

The Archaeological Service was formerly housed in the mosque and madrasa, and since 1930 the mosque has served as the Municipal Museum of Ioannina. The mosque is in good condition, and has had various repairs and stablizations over the years, including a replacement of the roof in 1986 and replacement of roof tiles ca. 2008.

Sources:

Brooks, Allan. Castles of northwest Greece: from the early Byzantine period to the eve of the First World War, 262. Huddersfield: Aetos, 2013.

Brouskarē, Ersē, and Elizabeth Key Fowden. Ottoman architecture in Greece, 160-161. Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Directorate of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Antiquities, 2009.

Mikropoulos, Tassos A., ed. Elevating and Safeguarding Culture Using Tools of the Information Society: Dusty traces of the Muslim culture, 368-369. Ioannina: The Educational Approaches to Virtual Reality Laboratory, University of Ioannina, 2008.



Location

Ioannina, Greece

Images & Videos

Part of Site

Events

1618/1027 AH

Style Periods

1299-1922

Variant Names

Aslan Pasha Camii
Variant
Municipal Ethnographic Museum of Ioannina
Alternate

Site Types

religious