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Modern Description: Medrese: an Ottoman seminary built by Mehmed Fahri in 1721 in the intersection of Pelopida and Aiolou streets in Plaka. It had cells around a courtyard, and a preaching hall. The inscription reads roughly as follows (from the Greek translation in A. Skoumbourdi), "The all-wise God, wishing through education to raise up the children of this country, his will is accomplished. The alms of Mehmet Fahri founded this fine medrese in the center of the city, so that all that children of God's messenger can commune fraternally, as they do in Paradise. Eleven cells were built and furnished so that the teachers of the faith can assemble in this holy and purposeful medrese to teach the children science and the Koran with its interpretation. May the sojourning here be pleasing to God, A.H. 1133." (1721 CE).
The school was transformed into a prison by the new Greek state in 1836. The prison was famous for its wretched conditions and for a large plane tree in the courtyard. All but the front entrance, with its Ottoman inscription and relief motifs, was destroyed in 1914 for the archaeologists Keramopoullos, Leonardos and Kourouniotis to excavate below. Parts of a N-S (transverse) late Roman fortification wall were found. The area, fenced and locked, now serves to store various ancient blocks. Objects found: "Various architectural reliefs and inscribed monuments both in the walls of the Mendresé and in the earth fill. Column drums, many simas with marble lionhead spouts from a small later building, two theatre seats, inscribed bases. Grave reliefs. Two or three torso fragments belonging to a noteworthy monument with reliefs. Fragment of a letter from a Roman Emperor to the city of Athens. Petrakos, B. 1987, 117, 118 fig. 72; A.D. Keramopoullos, Praktika 1914, 69-70 and 125-126; Deltion 1 (1915) Parart., 5" (Judith Binder)
[Judith Binder: Mendreses, Theological Seminary, 1721 to 1914, north of the Tower of the Winds at the intersection of Aiolou and Pelopida Sts. (Plan 1 gamma—6, no. 115): EMME. II, 1929, 119, figs. 149-152]
Trismegistos Geo: 364

Info: ToposText editors

(JBK)

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