The Faik Pasha Mosque (Imaret)
A 15th-century mosque on the right bank of the Arachthos that also became a church and is today an archaeological site.
- Location
- About 1.5 km north of the bridge, right bank
- Dating
- 15th century (about 1455 or 1492–1493)
- Builder
- Faik Pasha, conqueror of Arta in 1449
- Protection
- Listed since 1938
The Faik Pasha Mosque, also known as the Imaret of Arta, stands in the ancient locality of Marati, near Marathovouni, on the right bank of the Arachthos, about 1.5 km north of the bridge. The municipality's tourist guide considers it the oldest Ottoman monument in Epirus.
History
It was completed in the 15th century. One hypothesis dates it to about 1455 and another to 1492–1493, under Bayezid II, which is considered more plausible. It was built by Faik Pasha, an Ottoman vizier and the conqueror of Arta in 1449. The complex included baths, an imaret and a madrasa, but only the mosque and the nearby baths remain. It was probably built on the site of an earlier Byzantine church of Saint John the Baptist. It was a fortified position in the siege of Arta in 1821.
Architecture
The prayer hall is square, 11.5 m a side, with a dome and “Turkish triangles” in the drum. At the northwest corner is a brick minaret, now half-destroyed. The masonry reuses material from Byzantine and ancient sites, including Nicopolis and Ambracia. The mihrab is on the south wall and on the east wall are remnants of an iconostasis, from the later use as a church.
Today
It ceased to be used as a mosque in the 1820s. After the annexation of 1881 it was briefly converted into a Christian church of Saint John the Russian. It was declared a protected monument in 1938 and since the 1990s has been an archaeological site, overseen by the 8th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities. Restoration studies were approved in 2019 and the work was put out to tender in 2022.