The cause of the fire that destroyed the historic 15th century Bayezid Ottoman Mosque last week was not arson. According to the findings of fire brigades investigators, the cause was negligence by the workers team involved in the restoration works.
According to state broadcaster ERT, investigation showed that the fire was caused by sparks during welding works. The sparks had reached the wooden roof.
While the workers extinguished the fire earlier on that day, it was still looming in the roof of the mosque.
Before the outbreak of the great fire on Tuesday night, the residents had detected strong smell of smoke and alarmed authorities and the fire brigades.
However, the fire was quick out of control.
The fire broke out around 3 o’ clock in the morning and spread very quickly throughout the monument. With the help of fire brigades and army units, the fire was extinguished at around 7 a.m.
Already on Wednesday last week, authorities suspected that the fire earlier was not properly extinguished by the workers.
“Maybe the fire revived later,” media reported.
The Grand Mosque of Bayezid is located in the center of the town of Didymoteicho, very close to other buildings. It is not in operation. It is characterized as a monument and belongs to the Ministry of Culture.
The Celebi Sultan Mehmed Mosque is also known as the Bayezid Mosque and the Great Mosque is an early 15th-century Ottoman mosque in Didymoteicho.
The 17th-century Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi records that the mosque construction begun under Sultan Bayezid I (r. 1389–1402) and concluded under Sultan Mehmed I (r. 1413–1421). The mosque was completed and inaugurated in March 1420.
The Grand Mosque is a square structure, approximately 30–32 m on each side, including the walls. The mosque is built with cast stone technique and faced with limestone ashlar blocks. It external walls are ca. 2.2–2.7 m thick. There are two rows of windows, one at floor level and one above.
Its wooden roof had a particular architecture.
The early 15th-century oak roof constituted “one of the most important wooden monuments in the world” according to A. Bakirtzis author of a study on Ottoman architecture in Greece.
The mosque that is considered to be the oldest in Europe.
Restoration works started in 2010 and were expected to conclude later this year.
Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou assured that the restoration will continue.
More on the mosque, pictures and videos here.
