Aslan Pasha Medrese
Ioannina, Greece
Part of the Aslan Pasha Complex, the mederse sits to the southwest of the Aslan Pasha Mosque in the northeastern citadel. The mosque is one of only four in Ioannina that had a medrese (Aslan Pasha, Mehmet Aga, Veli Pasha and Osman Cavus); all the others had a mekteb, a Koran school for boys. The form of the building, construction details, and association of the mederse with the adjacent mosque suggest a date of construction in the first half of the 17th century, likely at the same time as the mosque in 1618/1027 AH.

The mederse is long, three story building L-shaped building built into the natural gradient of the ground, with an open colonnaded portico on the east side. It is constructed of rubble masonry, with brick used in the arches of the colonnade, and has a tile roof. The interior consists of a series of vaulted rooms, six on each side of a center hall, each with a hearth and whose only light source is through the doorway. A large wooden-roofed hall at the center of the building most likely served as a classroom.

Various projects have been undertaken to stabilize and restore the building, the most important in 1986-1987 that included replacing the roof and re-pointing the masonry. The mederse served as a school until the beginning of the 20th century. Currently, the central classroom houses the F. Rapakousis collection, which includes ceramics, weapons, coins, and other objects.

Sources:

Brouskarē, Ersē, and Elizabeth Key Fowden. Ottoman architecture in Greece, 163. Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Directorate of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Antiquities, 2009.

Mikropoulos, Tassos A., ed. Elevating and Safeguarding Culture Using Tools of the Information Society: Dusty traces of the Muslim culture, 370-371. Ioannina: The Educational Approaches to Virtual Reality Laboratory, University of Ioannina, 2008.




Location
Ioannina, Greece
Images & Videos
Part of Site
Events
first half of the 17th century
Style Periods
1299-1922
Variant Names
Aslan Pasha Madrasa
Variant
Building Usages
educational
Materials/Techniques