Yeni Mosque, Former mosque in Epano Skala, Mytilene, Greece
Yeni Mosque is a stone structure featuring a rounded vaulted roof made of bricks that spans the main prayer hall. A medrese and the mufti's residence occupy the garden area of the property.
The Yeni Mosque was commissioned in 1825 by Mustafa Agha Koulaxiz, governor and tax collector of Mytilene, as the largest and newest Ottoman mosque on Lesbos. A madrasa founded by Hadji Muhammed Agha, the mufti's mansion and a cemetery completed the complex. Abandoned after the 1923 population exchange, it lost its minaret in the winter of 1937 and its dome in 1951. It was classified a monument in 1956, and restoration began in the late 1990s under the 14th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities.
The mosque gave its name to the Yeni Cami quarter, and its prayer hall was painted in green-toned decoration. A 25-step exterior stair in the northeast corner let women reach a wooden gallery above the vestibule, while a second entrance on the east side was also reserved for them. The polychrome mihrab, nearly 6 m tall, survives in the south wall.
The mosque stands at the corner of Ermou and Agramitiou streets in Epano Skala, about 50 metres east of the Ottoman baths. Only the lower half of the roughly 30-metre minaret survives, at the north-west corner. The prayer hall and porch are in partial ruin, so the interior is not a regular visiting space; the exterior and street setting can be seen at any time.
The minaret collapsed in the winter of 1937, and the dome fell in 1951, after which part of its materials were looted and sold. The roof was a 12-metre tiled structure topped by a dome of wood, lime mortar and iron reinforcement covered in lead, a construction found nowhere else in the Balkans.
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