Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the alley in front of Surp Kirkor and wander about in the rather
mean streets between it and the sea, you will find three churches that
originally belonged to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate but which
are now the property of the so-called Turkish Orthodox Church. The
latter was founded in 1924 by a dissident priest from Anatolia named
Papa Eftim, who took control of the three churches in Galata and set
up his own church for his parishioners, in which the mass is said in
Turkish rather than Greek. Papa Eftim, who styled himself Patriarch
Efthemios I, engaged in a running battle with the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate that at one point reached the League of Nations. After
his death he was succeeded as patriarch by his two sons in turn, but
by now the congregation is virtually non-existent, though the three
churches in Galata - St. John, St. Nicholas and the Panaghia (Virgin)
Kafatiani - still belong to the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate such
as it is. The Panaghia Kafatiani, the oldest of the three churches,
founded in 1475 by Greeks from Kafa in the Crimea, though the
present church dates only from 1840, is the patriarchate of the
Turkish Orthodox Church; it preserves a sacred icon of the Virgin
Hodegitria brought from the Crimea by the original parishioners.
We now come to the district of Tophane, just outside the old
walls of Galata; it takes its name from the cannon foundry which still
dominates the road on the left-hand side. There was once a small but
busy and picturesque port here; this has now been largely filled in,
but there are still several Ottoman buildings of some interest in the
immediate vicinity.
KILIÇ ALİ PAŞA CAMİİ
The first monument one comes to, on the right, is the mosque
complex which Sinan built in 1580 for Kılıç Ali Paşa. This Ali was an
Italian from Calabria called Ochiali who had become a Muslim and
risen high in the Ottoman navy, being among the few officers who
distinguished himself at the disastrous battle of Lepanto in 1571. As
a reward for his outstanding service Selim II appointed him Kaptan
Paşa, that is, Lord High Admiral, and conferred upon him the name
Kılıç, the Sword. He twice captured Tunis from the Spaniards, the
second time permanently. When he died in 1587, his fortune was
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