Thessaloniki Yeni Mosque

Location: Vasilissis Olgas Avenue

Yeni (New) Mosque is an exemplary representation of religious architecture in Thessaloniki. According to the municipality of Thessaloniki, it was built in 1902 by the Italian architect Vitaliano Poselli, who also designed Villa Allatini and the building housing the War Museum of Thessaloniki. The building combines the Muslim tradition with the architectural elements of its time of construction, i.e. eclecticism.
It has two floors and a courtyard with a rich collection of marble sculptures dating to the Roman and early Christian periods, such as sarcophagi, funerary carvings, gravestones, and reliefs.

The mosque used to be a place of worship for the Islamised Jews of Thessaloniki. After the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1922, refugees were hosted in it for a short time.
A few years later, in 1925, the mosque was granted to the Archaeological Service and would be the first museum functioning in the city, as stated in an inscription on its frontage. During World War II, many antiquities were hidden in trenches to survive the ravages, and in 1951, they were unearthed again and exhibited in Yeni Mosque. However, the Archaeological Museum moved into a new building designed by Greek architect Patroklos Karantinos a few years later.
Today, the mosque is an exhibition space for the Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki.