Conversion of Non-Christian Places of Worship Into Churches - Balkans

Balkans

During the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the 15th century, many churches had been converted to mosques with a minaret added, in the 19th century many former church-mosques were reconverted in churches and their minarets destroyed. Such as the Church of Prophet Elijah (Thessaloniki). After the Christian Balkan states obtained independence from the Muslim Ottoman Empire, they systematically destroyed Ottoman heritage, many original Ottoman mosques were destroyed. In many cases the Minarets of the mosques were destroyed while the mosque itself was converted into a church or left to decay. The Sveti Sedmochislenitsi Church in Sofia an 15th-century Ottoman mosque, converted into a church in the 19th century.