Fethiye Mosque: The Russian Church of Kars

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1. What is the Fethiye Mosque?
2. How do you get to the Fethiye Mosque?
3. When is the best time to visit the Fethiye Mosque?
4. What is the history of the Fethiye Mosque?
5. What is the Fethiye Mosque famous for?
6. What can you see at the Fethiye Mosque?
7. Common misconceptions about the Fethiye Mosque
8. Frequently asked questions about the Fethiye Mosque
9. What do the official records say about the Fethiye Mosque?

What is the Fethiye Mosque?

The Fethiye Mosque is the largest of the churches built in Kars during the Russian period, now the city’s best-known mosque. It is a long, basilica-like building of black basalt trimmed with red stone, with two slim minarets added at its eastern corners when it was converted.

Russia held Kars from 1878 until 1918, and the Treaty of Kars in 1921 confirmed the city as Turkish. In those forty years the Russian administration built a new town of straight streets, stone public buildings and churches for the garrison, and this church is the most prominent survivor. The 2002 inventory notes that the building, known for its exterior decoration, was first built by the Russians as a church and was later restored and converted into a mosque. Alongside the Baltic-style mansions of the centre, it is one of the clearest reminders of the forty years when Kars was part of the Russian Empire.

How do you get to the Fethiye Mosque?

The mosque is in the Russian-era grid south of the Kars River, within walking distance of the central hotels. From the centre you can continue north on foot to Taşköprü, the Kümbet Mosque and Kars Castle, all within about 20 minutes.

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When is the best time to visit the Fethiye Mosque?

Visit outside prayer times, especially Friday midday prayers. Morning or late-afternoon light brings out the contrast between the black and red stone. Dress modestly; women should cover their hair.

The mosque fits easily into a half-day walk around central Kars. Start here, walk north through the Russian-era streets to the river, and finish at the castle for the view at sunset.

What is the history of the Fethiye Mosque?

After Russia took Kars in 1878, the new administration built churches for its garrison and settlers. This one was dedicated to St Alexander Nevsky. A study in a Turkish academic journal dates it to 1908, when it was built for an infantry battalion and handed over to the 154th Derbent Infantry Regiment; other sources date it to the first years of the century. Because Cossacks of the Uman regiment attended services there, local people called it the “Cossack Church”. No architect is recorded for the Kars building; it adapts a standard design for regimental churches by the Russian architect Fyodor Verzhbitsky; the Russian-era church at Oltu, in Erzurum province, follows the same model.

The church originally had towers over the west entrance and the apse, topped with onion domes; these were demolished in 1953. In 1984–1985 the building was converted into a mosque and named Fethiye (“Conquest”). Two minarets were added at the northeast and southeast corners, the south entrance became the mihrab on the inside, and the west apse was absorbed into the prayer hall.

What is the Fethiye Mosque famous for?

• Two-tone stonework: black basalt walls with red stone window frames, columns, bases and capitals.
• Russian church architecture in Anatolia, closely related to the Russian-era church at Oltu in Erzurum province.
• Its conversion, one of the best-known examples of a church in eastern Türkiye turned into a mosque in the 20th century.

What can you see at the Fethiye Mosque?

The façades. The walls are divided by string courses and pilasters, with rows of round-arched blind arcades under the eaves. Look for the red Kanber stone used for window surrounds and columns against the black basalt.

The prayer hall. The rectangular nave has a three-part ceiling with sloping sides and a flat centre, unusual in a Turkish mosque, and the light, open hall still reads as a church interior.

The Russian city around it. Walk the surrounding streets to see the Baltic-style public buildings and mansions of 1890–1918. About 190 such buildings are registered and protected in Kars. A restoration project prepared by the Serhat Development Agency and financed with European Union pre-accession funds has worked on the façades of 32 of them along Haydar Aliyev Caddesi, including the governor’s mansion, the former Stavuski Mansion.

The materials. The black basalt and red stone used here are the same volcanic stones seen across Kars, from the medieval castle to the Ottoman bathhouses, which is why the Russian buildings sit so naturally in the older city.

Common misconceptions about the Fethiye Mosque

Is this the Fethiye Mosque at Ani?

What people often assume: That “Fethiye Mosque, Kars” refers to the medieval cathedral at Ani.

What the record says: They are two different buildings. The Ani Cathedral, 42 km away, is also called Fethiye Camii because Alp Arslan used it as a mosque after taking Ani in 1064; the Kars city mosque is a Russian church of the early 20th century (Ministry of Culture and Tourism). See our Ani guide for the cathedral.

Frequently asked questions about the Fethiye Mosque

What do the official records say about the Fethiye Mosque?

Known for its exterior decoration, the building was first built by the Russians as a church, and was later restored and converted into a mosque.

The province’s potential in faith tourism is also remarkable. The first mosques of the Seljuks in Anatolia and Christian churches of the early period are an indication of this potential. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kars Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)