Sadirvan Mosque
The Sadirvan Mosque is a former mosque in the town of Drama, in the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region of northern Greece. Built in the 15th century during the Ottoman era, the mosque was abandoned in the 1920s, following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey which saw the exodus of the Muslim community of Drama. The building was subsequently repurposed for profane use and then neglected for decades. During the late 2010s, the structure was restored and renovated and repurposed for municipal exhibition center for historical and cultural events. It is one of the four surviving mosques in Drama, that are no longer used for worship.
History
The mosque’s minaret dates from the second half of the fifteenth century; according to the dedicatory inscription above its entrance, it was renovated 1806 by local Mehmet Halil Agha. It continued to function as an Islamic place of worship until 1922, thereupon it was used as shelter for numerous Greek refugees arriving from Asia Minor.For fifty-four years between 1927 and 1981 it housed the headquarters of Tharros, the longest-running Greek newspaper in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Later, in 1983, the building was classified by the state as a monument, but left neglected as it continued to rot until its minaret collapsed. In 2012 it was purchased by Raycap, which proceeded to renovate the old building. The extensive work was undertaken by the architectural team of Koralia Pappaioannou, and was subsequently repurposed as an exhibition space for periodical exhibitions, particularly centered around Islamic art.
The former mosque stands in the intersection of the Armen and Agamemnon streets.
Architecture
The former mosque is made of stone, and has a rectangular parallelepiped shape. On the southwestern side the base of the minaret can be observed, although the minaret no longer stands. A marble inscription written in Ottoman Turkish is placed above the lintel. Originally it was part of a larger complex that included dormitories, a cemetery, and a fountain, all within an enclosed courtyard.Remarkably, its 19th-century frescoes with cityscape views and floral patterns survive in the portico of the mosque, perhaps constituting the first depiction of Drama town from the late Ottoman rule.
According to Papaioannou, during the course of the renovation works several architectural fragments of older structures were discovered as well, which were used as structural elements for the mosque, as well as other pieces of the mosque itself, scattered in the surrounding area.