Fatih Mosque

Fatih Mosque occupies a prominent spot inside the walls of Amasra Castle, in Turkey's Bartın province on the Black Sea coast. The building began as a Byzantine church, constructed in the ninth century, and was converted into a mosque after Sultan Mehmed II, known as Fatih ("the Conqueror"), took Amasra in 1460. The conversion makes it one of the oldest surviving monuments of the town's Ottoman period and a direct physical record of the conquest. A distinctive local tradition holds that the Friday sermon here is delivered with a sword in hand, recalling the military circumstances of the town's capture. Reached on foot through the narrow lanes of the old citadel, Fatih Mosque remains one of Amasra's principal historic sites and is open to visitors free of charge.