Fatih Mosque, Tirilye


The Fatih Mosque is a mosque in Tirilye, Bursa Province, Turkey, which was converted from an 8th-century Byzantine church dedicated to Saint Theodore. The building was constructed between 720 and 730 AD, originally as the Church of Christ and Saint Stephen. After the Ottoman conquest of the town, it was converted to a mosque and named "Fatih", which means "conquest". The mosque was briefly rededicated as a church during the Greek occupation of the area in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922.
The church is the oldest Byzantine building in the region, and has protected status. It is of the typical Byzantine cross-in-square style and has Byzantine column headings at the entrance and a dome high. The mosque is entered thorough a portico covered with a wooden roof which is standing on four columns that have ornamented metal headings. The building has a mihrab that is covered with a half-dome.