Fatih Mosque (Chrysokephalos)

The Fatih Mosque stands in the centre of Trabzon and was built as the Chrysokephalos (Golden-Headed) church in the 10th century, later serving as the cathedral of the Empire of Trebizond. When Mehmed II conquered the city in 1461, it became the first church he converted to a mosque — a symbolic act that marked the end of Byzantine Christian rule in Anatolia.

The exterior retains much of its Byzantine character: the distinctive drum and dome above the crossing, the carved stone decorative bands, and the large windows of the apse. Inside, the original columns and some structural elements survive beneath the mosque fittings. It is an active mosque welcoming visitors outside prayer times. Standing in the nave and looking up at the Byzantine dome above an Ottoman interior is a genuinely strange experience that concentrates several centuries of history in a single building.

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A story
The Chrysokephalos church was built in the 10th century and served as the cathedral of the Empire of Trebizond — where the last Byzantine emperors were crowned until the Ottomans took the city in 1461. The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who personally supervised the conquest, converted it to a mosque the same year and gave it his own title of Fatih, "the Conqueror." The Byzantine frescoes were whitewashed and the interior reoriented for Islamic worship, but the Greek cross floor plan and the four columns of dark granite that support the dome are original.