Is Trasformation Functional or Ideological? Observations on the Spatial Distribution of Refunctioned Religious Buildings in 1453 in Istanbul

Assoc. Prof. Zeynep AKTÜRE, Izmir Institute of Technology

Following the reopening of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum as a mosque last year, works on the Kariye Museum started to head in the same direction and the religious structures in which similar functional changes took place after the city had passed under Ottoman rule became a popular and scientific agenda. Although they possess similar legal bases, the differentiation observed in the current re-functioning processes due to differences such as location, scale, symbolic meaning, spatial fiction, architectural decoration, and conservation status between the two buildings provide clues for researchers about transformations in different periods and structures. On this occasion, researchers such as Stephanos Yerasimos (2011) and Semavi Eyice (2012) stated that during the reign of Mehmet II, few of the existing religious buildings in the city were converted into mosques (since the Reform Edict of 1856 paved the way for church repairs and construction, most of the Eastern Roman churches allocated to non-Muslim communities in 1453 were enlarged and renovated). However, it should be remembered that examples of conversions into mosques had better preservation status as architectural heritage, and that the re-functionalization of the same period included a wide variety of uses such as a madrasah, arslanhane, ammunition and gunpowder warehouses, and a shipyard.

In the proposed paper, the spatial distribution of this diversity observed in the transformations of religious buildings in Istanbul in 1453 was investigated through existing publications, and based on the observation of Paul Magdalino (2018) that re-functioning was done for “functional”, “de-sanctification” and “ideological” reasons, and will be interpreted with a contextual approach. Experts on the subject state that there is no consensus on the complete list of the religious buildings that survived in 1453 and how they were functionalised, as well as the location of some structures the names and functions of which are known. Since the aim of the study is to discuss the efficiency of the contextual interpretation of functional changes, some observations can be made that will contribute to the discussions on the re-functioning of religious structures based on elements such as non-functional holy spring-type space components (which point to the differences between the practices of the two churches under the continuity of church function observed when viewed from the upper scale). Examples such as those based on elements such as the spatial and functional relationship of the arslanhane and baruthane transformations with Topkapı Palace, the objections made by the Greek Orthodox communities during the allocation of the Eastern Roman churches, which remained within the regions where the Armenian population was settled after 1453.