Did you know that the Parthenon in Athens was used as a mosque during the Ottoman period? Click for more.

It has been in continuous use since the Parthenon was built in 432 BC. Originally designed as a Greek temple, the Parthenon served as a Christian church for a thousand years during the Byzantine Empire. It was later converted into a mosque when the Ottomans took over Greece in the 15th century.

Historians are somewhat confused as to when the Ottomans made this radical change. The smartest guess is that this happened on the orders of Mehmed the Conqueror, one of the most powerful sultans who conquered Istanbul. Sultan Mehmed expanded the borders of the Ottoman Empire to the Balkans and his armies captured Athens in 1458. Allegedly, the conversion of the Parthenon into a mosque was a punishment for the Athenians attempting a conspiracy against Ottoman rule.

Other historical sources suggest that by the mid-17th century the structure had undergone less change than during the period under Christian control. When the Parthenon was used as a mosque, the Ottomans carried out their religious traditions and worship under various Christian motifs and images, including a large mosaic of the Virgin Mary.

The Parthenon’s location on the Acropolis dominates the cityscape of Athens.

Some of the works added to the structure include paintings such as the Last Judgment, which features pagan, Christian and Muslim religious figures together. The appearance of the hill changed when an explosion destroyed the mosque in 1687. After this, a second mosque was apparently built.

Jenifer Neils describes the mosques inside the Parthenon in her book The Parthenon: From Antiquity to the Present. of the second mosque "small and simple, square in plan, set at an angle to the ancient ruins, and with a portico facing northwest" It says it is.

Neils also states that, unlike the first mosque, the second mosque was built in a more typical Ottoman style and that “its interior was covered with a dome raised over an octagonal passage, and there were small dome-like vaults over the three-bay portico.”

Although described as small, the hill is said to have “the most beautiful mosque in the world,” according to an English traveler who visited the area in the mid-17th century. However, this new structure is not of the best quality as it is built from reused stones.

This structure remained there until around the 1820s, and the Acropolis was the target of several sieges during the Greek War of Independence. No significant renovations were made to the Parthenon in the following decades, with no serious work taking place until at least the 1890s. At that time, the first long-term reconstruction works were initiated under the supervision of Nikolaos Balanos. However, according to modern-day preservationists, the site suffered further damage during this period.