Thessaloniki's Hamza Bey Mosque Reopens as MOMus Arts Centre After 20-Year Restoration

Key facts

• Thessaloniki's 15th-century Hamza Bey Mosque, known as Alacazar, reopened last weekend as an exhibition space after nearly 20 years of conservation and restoration.
• The mosque was commissioned in 1467 by the daughter of Ottoman admiral Hamza Bey and expanded a century later with a portico, minaret and quadrilateral courtyard.
• It was rebuilt in 1620 after fire and earthquake damage, with a madrasa added.
• Following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, it ceased functioning as a mosque and became property of the National Bank of Greece.
• It was declared a protected monument in 1926, later used as a cinema called Alacazar for several decades, and came under the Greek ministry of culture in 2006.
• Structural work and stabilisation began in 2007 and continued in slow stages until 2023; the most recent leg, supported by the European Recovery Fund, took place between 2024-26.
• The site will be run by the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus), with some decisions taken in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Thessaloniki City.
• The opening exhibition, Thessaloniki: The Footprint of Transition (1960-1980). Through the photographs of Pete Marifoglou, features three thematic sections and includes black-and-white works by Thessaloniki-native Marifoglou on public view for the first time.