Pera and Galata - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 414

by whose name it was also called. It seems to have been converted
into a mosque in the last decade of the fifteenth century, probably
for the Moors who were resettled in Galata after their expulsion
from Spain, and hence the name Arap Camii. The building has been
partially burned and restored several times, and in the process it was
considerably widened by moving the north wall outwards several
metres. Nevertheless it continues to look like a rather typical Latin
church, originally Gothic, a long hall ending in three rectangular
apses and with a belfry (now the minaret) at the east end. The flat
wooden roof and the rather pretty wooden galleries date only from a
restoration during the years 1913-19. At that time also the original
floor was uncovered and large quantities of Genoese tombstones came
to light; these are now in the Archaeological Museum. Fragments of
a fourteenth-century fresco were recently discovered in the central
apse. On the north side is a large, unkempt but not unattractive
courtyard with a şadırvan.
We now return to the street by which we arrived at Arap Camii
and continue on till the second turning on the right; from this we
take the second turning on the left. This brings us onto Yanık Kapı
Sokağı, the Street of the Burnt Gate, which takes its name from the
ancient portal which we come to about 100 metres along. This is the
only surviving gate of the medieval Genoese town; it once led from
the fourth enceinte to the fifth. Above the archway we see a bronze
tablet upon which is emblazoned the cross of St. George, symbol of
Genoa the Superb, between a pair of escutcheons bearing the heraldic
arms of the noble houses of Doria and De Merude.
AZAP KAPI CAMİİ
After passing through the archway we take the next left; this soon
brings us out to the main highway paralleling the Golden Horn. A
short distance of to the right, just beside the Atatürk Bridge, we see the
handsome mosque known as Azap Kapı Camii, taking its name from
the Marine Gate, or Azap Kapı, of the Tershane, or Ottoman shipyard,
on the other side of the bridge highway. Founded by the Grand Vezir
Sokollu Mehmet Paşa, the mosque was built in A.H. 985 (A.D. 1577-
8) and its architect was Sinan. While it hardly equals Sokollu Mehmet's