Athens in the Ottoman Period

Athens in the Ottoman Period

A different walk through Athens’ past: Ottoman monuments. The tour includes a visit to mosques, medreses and baths!

Our walk will start from the School Life and Education Museum where, while enjoying our tea, we will start our journey through time to be guided to the Ottoman past of Athens.

There was once a city called Athens. It was a city of many sorrows, because everyone wanted to have it for its beauty. And so this city has known many conquerors. Romans who plundered her cruelly and savagely. In 86 B.C., it was taken by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla and savagely plundered. And then the tribe of the Heruli, who leave irreparable damage to the glorious monuments of the Acropolis. Then a great fire destroys the gold and ivory statue of Athena. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, it is besieged by the Latins who come on the occasion of the Fourth Crusade. From 1205 to 1311, French dukes ruled, from 1311 to 1387 the knights of the Catalan Company ruled, followed by the Florentine Acciaioli family, who ruled Athens until the conquest by the Turks.

Where there knights and castles in Athens, like the ones we see in the movies? The evidence shows that these Latin rulers transferred the whole medieval system of organization and created the Duchy of Athens. The city was fortified and then the Rizokastro was constructed, which was the new fortified enclosure, and the works done transformed the Acropolis into a medieval castle. The Parthenon is turned into a Latin church, the Erechtheion becomes the residence of the Latin bishop and the Propylaea, which formerly housed the residence of the Metropolitan, is used as the residence of the dukes.

The invasion of the Turks takes place in a rather orderly manner and this is where a love scandal comes in. Chiara, the widow of the ruler of the Acciaioli family, falls in love with a young Venetian named Contarini, but there is one small obstacle. Contarini is newly married. He returns to Venice, removes the “obstacle” (he murders or participates in the murder of his wife) and, now unhindered, marries Chiara, settles in the Acropolis and becomes Duke of Athens. But the husband’s family does not welcome all this, sends a delegation to Constantinople and Muhammad finds the seizes the opportunity and sends the Ottoman army to occupy Athens.

And so the history of Athens under the yoke of another oppressor begins. A short break in the rule of the Ottomans, is the Venetian occupation and the destruction of the Parthenon by Morosini during the siege is well known (the second greatest destruction of the Parthenon was the restoration of the Parthenon by the Greek state in the 19th century, the first being the great fire probably during the raid of the Heruls). The Venetian occupation lasted from 1687 to 1688 and ended with the plague epidemic according to the historian Kambouroglou.

Muhammad visited Athens twice. His first visit was in 1458 and he was impressed by the beauty of Athens that he gave a lot of privileges for the sake of the old glory. Muhammad should be noted that he knew Greek from his stepmother, Maria Bragovich (from the Kantakouzene family from her mother and Servite from her father). Mary, who was about the same age as Muhammad and was Murat’s last wife, kept her Christian religion to the end which Muhammad knew and that she distributed the large sums of money he gave her to churches and monasteries.

The Muslims of Athens lived quite peacefully and had become homogenized as they spoke Greek, the Athenian dialect. They even took part in Greek and Christian holidays, especially on the feast of St. George the Acamite, which was located in the ancient market place. In fact, when the feast of St. George coincided with Easter, the celebrations lasted three days.

The situation was  so peaceful that when the revolution broke out in Athens, well organized by the demagogues, and they were locked up in the Acropolis, the Ottomans wondered what they had done to lock them up there and why they could no longer live as they had before. Besides, it is well known that the Ottomans , both because of religion and diplomacy, let their subjects freely exercise their religious duties.

Of course, this does not mean that things were always peaceful and there were often tensions and disputes. Usually, however, when delegations were sent to the High Gate, the Sultan would settle things by taking the side of the Athenians. One such harsh occupation was that of the voivode Haji Ali Haseki, which lasted 22 years and ended with his beheading by the Sultan when he learned what had been committed during his years of rule.

One of the most famous Ottoman monuments is of course the Mosques.

The Tzisdaraki Mosque.
The Mosque owes its name to Tzisdarakis, a Muslim who  spoke Greek. The mosque was built in 1759 and its construction is associated with an unpleasant history, as one of the columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus had to be demolished and used (of course, it is more likely that one of the adjacent columns of the Library of Hadrian was used). According to the beliefs of the time, however, this resulted in bad luck for the inhabitants of the area. So the voevodas of Chalkis, because of his rivalry with Tzisdarakis, threatens to denounce him to the Sultan, Tzisdarakis sends him a lot of gifts and presents, and the voevodas takes them but denounces him, and Tzisdarakis loses his office. In the end he is even assassinated as he was held responsible for the double plague that struck the city. This mosque was also known as the mosque of the lower bazaar. In 1919 the first restoration works were carried out and the mosque housed the Museum of Folk Art. Today it houses the Kyriazopoulos ceramics collection in a very nice and well-kept space.

Another Mosque that was very close by was the Kucuk Mosque. Today we can see only its foundations and there is no relevant sign telling about its history (between Panos and Thrasyboulou).
But the largest and most important Mosque was the Fethiye Mosque or the Mosque of the Porter located inside the Roman market. The inscriptions found inside, under the windows, in Arabic, date it to around 1670. It was built on the ruins of a church(the holy church of Panagia Sotiras, which was also the city’s cathedral for a time), which the Ottomans had converted into a mosque (mizrama). It was called the Mosque of the Porter as the original building was built on the occasion of Muhammad’s arrival. It was also called the Mosque of the Staropazar as it was located in the area where the grain bazaar was held. Morosini converted it into a Catholic church and after the Greek liberation the mosque became a military prison and in 1824 it was granted to the Philomusso Society and became a school. From 1834 a military bakery operated there.

Other mosques that operated in Athens are the Yeni Mosque (Voulis and Nicodemus) and the Softa Mosque (Pandrosou and Kapnikareas). Two others are said to have operated under the Acropolis, one at Anafiotika and one on the other side of the hill, but it has not been found.It is not known when the Parthenon was converted into a Mosque but it was probably around the end of the 15th century as a reprisal by the Sultan who was angry as the Greeks had helped the Venetians. A total of nine mosques are mentioned.

Another monument that was used by the Ottomans, is the well-known Clock Tower of Kyrrestos or Tower of Winds, which was converted into a tepee of the battalion of the Mevlevians, the tepee of Braimi. It became a tekke, after Morosini and then probably the windows were opened and together with the adjacent Mendreset, they were a pole of attraction for spiritual Islam in the Greek area. There every Friday afternoon they danced the “semah” and travellers from all parts came to see them dance this famous ritual dance of the rotating dervishes. Something of a tourist attraction of the time.

A door leading to a deserted garden. This is what remains of Madrasa, another Ottoman monument. Madrasa, the Muslim seminary founded by Mehmet Fahri. It was converted into a prison, and it was here that political dissidents of the time were imprisoned. In its courtyard there was a huge plane tree, and it was from here that the famous Greek expression “Say hello to the plane tree” came out.
As this prison was in the centre of the then market place, where there were many shops and cafés, those who were being released from prison would pass by outside and shout to those who had remained, this well-known phrase which has now become a proverb.

The hammams of Athens

A habit that the Ottomans brought with them was the public baths. Baths were not an invention of the Ottomans, of course, as they had existed since antiquity. Public baths were operating in Kerameikos, although the ancient Athenians, being hardy, did not like hot baths and did not enjoy the hot baths much, preferring the gymnasiums and palaces. During the years of Roman rule, however, hot baths were a favourite habit of the Romans who enjoyed all their uses. Many baths were found in the National Garden, in Zappeion,  on the temple of Olympian Zeus.

Ottomans spread them far and wide to the general population. Their religion, which wanted them to be clean not only in soul but also in body, imposed regular bathing (the hygienic conditions of the time were of course those that wisely imposed it through religion, as well as many other things imposed under the guise of religious imperatives). Soon the Greeks learned the hammams and the Greeks went too. They usually operated at different times for men and women, in the morning for men and in the afternoon for women. Saturday afternoon was also dedicated to women and was their own café and outlet as it was the only outlet that women of the time, Turkish and Greek, were entitled to. So they would bring their snacks, their drinks, their sherbets, their baklava, even their instruments, and they would have a good time. It was a place of meeting and socializing so much so that while the rich houses had private hammams, they used to go to the public hammams.

A hammam existed inside Hadrian’s Library, at the corner of Ares and Dexippou str., and while it was a public bath, in the years of the voivode Hasecki, the cruel oppressor, it became part of his house. A large and aristocratic hammam existed where the offices of the Archdiocese are now housed on Agias Filotheis Street. There was also a hammam on the Acropolis exclusively to serve the Castrian Turks who were there permanently for security reasons.
In fact, a hammam was visited by Lord Elgin’s wife in April of 1800, while Elgin was preoccupied with how to distribute the spices with disastrous results. The sight she saw did not satisfy her as she found it rather inappropriate to see up to 400 naked women enjoying their baths, having fun and dancing.

The only surviving hammam today is the Bath of the Winds , near the Clock of Kyrristos between Kyrristou and Lysiou streets. It was the hammam of Abid Efendi and is mentioned in the testimony of the Turkish traveller Evlija Tselebi who visited Athens in 1667 and thanks to him we have many testimonies about Athens of those times.
It operated, like all of them, separate hours for men and women and later it was divided into two so that it could function as both a male and female one. Baths in general prevailed even after the liberation as the Greeks were used to them and the profession of a loutrar was one of the most profitable professions. The Bathhouse was open until the 1960s in one part of it, while the other was the tavern “The Ace of Wine”. At the beginning of the 90’s the restoration works began and today it is open to visitors and hosts periodic exhibitions. Kambouroglou used to visit this Bathhouse when he was a child with his mother and his descriptions capture the great impression that the whole atmosphere had made on him.

The hammam experience is one of the most enjoyable experiences and is something you should enjoy as fortunately traditional hammams have started to operate in Athens and Thessaloniki.

At 16th Tripodon Street, there is a traditional hammam, Al Hammam Traditional Baths and you can enjoy in modern times the relaxation and tranquility it offers and experience this Ottoman charming pleasure in a truly beautiful environment.

If you are tired on this trip what better to close in one of the beautiful shops in the area. Enjoy a scoop  of ice cream from Arte Cafe at 16th Tripodon Street along with your coffee or food at one of the quaint little taverns in the area.

We are waiting for you on our walks and guided tours to discover the hidden history and magic of another Athens!