Mendoni: Alcazar Monument is rendered in the first half of 2026 in Thessaloniki

The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni conducted an autopsy on Mosqueknown as Alcazarto Thessaloniki. The work of restoring the monument has been undertaken by the Ministry of Culture, with funding of approximately € 11,000,000, from the resources of the Recovery Fund, the Department of Restoration of Byzantine and Post -Byzantine Monuments in collaboration with the Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments and the Ephorate of Ancient Monuments. The Minister was briefed by the relevant Ministry of Culture and the contractor about the evolution of its implementation, extremely complex and demanding project, as the morphology of the monument has undergone significant alterations due to many interventions in various historical periods.

After the autopsy on the project, Lina Mendoni said:

“For the last six years we have been implementing a program of projects and actions in Thessaloniki that exceeds 100,000,000 euros from Community and national resources. This presupposes the importance we attach to the monuments and the centuries -old history of Thessaloniki, which are gradually attributed to the citizens, preserved and touched, offering a completely different image of the city. The Hamza Bey mosque, in the city center, at the intersection of Egnatia and Venizelos streets, in immediate proximity to the northern entrance of the Metropolitan Railway Station, is the oldest Islamic House in Thessaloniki. It was built in 1467 by the daughter of military commander Hamza Bey. Later, in the perittle courtyard of the mosque, the Alcazar Cinema, whose name prevailed in collective memory, worked for decades. The mosque has been protected under the archaeological law as a historical and archaeological monument, since 1926. The restoration of the Alcazar is evolving in accordance with the timetable. Its restoration will give the city yet another iconic monument. Our aim is to complete the project and to render the monument to the city within the first half of 2026. The Ministry of Culture restoring the monumental wealth of Thessaloniki contributes decisively not only to the upgrading of the city’s image, but also to its cultural operation and economic development. ”

The project is evolving smoothly and intensively after completing the infrastructure for constructional development. Exterior mosque on the north and west sides have developed work scaffolding. The internal existing columns were checked and supplemented locally by new provisions, while appropriate scaffolding provisions were installed in the interior of the masonry masonry to carry out all the levels of the dome.

Preventive fastening of the interior decoration of the mosque is under way by specialized conservative workshops, as well as the partial secondment of the marble plates of the floor in the patio. The exterior masonry of the monument is carried out by the mourning of loose joints and coatings and the execution of samples of new compatible mortars.

The square, in a plan in view of the mosque’s prayer, has an internal dimensions of 11.54×11.54m and a maximum height of 17m. It added apartments, on the northeast and southwest side and an eccentric addition, on the northwestern side and west corner, which are a single perstal surrounding the mosque in the shape of P. The apartments of the Peristos develop parallel to the side walls of the main mosque. The peristo is composed of an open colonnade (Revak) in the west, with side closed apartments, north and south. The patio has a table plan view, and its galleries are defined by colonnades. The mosque consists of three distinct modules corresponding to three consecutive chronological phases: the prayer room, the peristo and the patio.

Lina Mendoni was accompanied by the Head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Thessaloniki Elizabeth Tsigarida, the Head of the Department of the Department of the Department of Restoration of Byzantine and Post -Byzantine Monuments Efi Chorafa, as well as the Department of Services.