
The Molla Gurani Mosque, also known as the Church-Mosque of Vefa, occupies a complex of buildings in Istanbul that originally stood as an Eastern Orthodox church before its conversion to Islamic worship after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. The earlier dedication of the church is uncertain, though some scholars have suggested it may have been dedicated to Hagios Theodoros.
The surviving structure is regarded as one of the most significant examples of Comnenian and Palaiologan architecture from the era of Byzantine Constantinople. Its masonry, vaulting, and decorative programme carry the marks of the late centuries of the city's Christian life, when artistic patronage flowered under the Komnenos and Palaiologos imperial houses.
With the Ottoman conquest, the church was given a new life as a mosque, and the building has continued in that role ever since. Today it stands as both a place of Islamic prayer and a witness to the layered Christian and Muslim heritage of the historic peninsula of Istanbul.
Through the four pathways
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