İstanbulluoğlu Mosque (Former Church)

The İstanbulluoğlu Mosque of Akdağmadeni was originally built of finely cut stone as a church and today serves as an active mosque, standing within a walled courtyard on a rectangular plan. The round-arched narthex at the entrance was later partitioned into two side rooms. The narthex has three arches, with angular columns at the corners and round columns at the center. A minaret was later added atop the church's original bell tower on the south side, with its entrance accessed from outside. The roof eaves project slightly and are covered with tiles in a gabled form. The interior is a three-aisled, vaulted space, and the rear wall preserves a three-part apse. Built during the Ottoman period to serve the district's non-Muslim community, the church changed hands over time and was converted into a mosque, while retaining much of its original architecture — notably the nave arrangement, the apse, and the narthex. As such, the building stands as a tangible example of Akdağmadeni's multicultural past and of the broader Anatolian tradition of religious buildings changing function. It should not be confused with the separate Akdağmadeni Church (in the Yeşildere/Tahmaz neighborhood, dated 1862), which remains a functioning church building to this day.