Balat, Fatih

Ahrida (Ohrid) Synagogue (Hebrew: קהל קדוש אכרידה) is one of the oldest synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey. It is located in Balat, once a thriving Jewish quarter in the city.

Yusuf Şucaeddin Mosque Fountain or Balat Fountain (Turkish: Balat Çeşmesi) is an Ottoman period fountain in the Ayvansaray neighborhood of Istanbul's Fatih district. After the Golden Horn coastal road works in the 1980s, it remained in the garden of Yusuf Şucaeddin Mosque. It is made of cut limestone and has a hexagonal shape. It has a large reservoir and a fountain on each of its four sides. It is covered with lead. There is a marble slab in place of the mirror stone. Only one fountain has water flowing.

Yanbol Synagogue is a synagogue in Istanbul, built by Sephardi Jews who moved from the Bulgarian town of Yambol to Istanbul during the 15th century. The synagogue is also known as the Bulgarian Synagogue owing to the origin of the community. The synagogue was constructed in the 18th Century. However, it underwent repairs during the end of the 19th century thus the structure today is not the original. Today, the synagogue is only open for Shabbat services due to a decrease in the Jewish community in the area.

The Pammakaristos Church, also known as the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos (Greek: Θεοτόκος ἡ Παμμακάριστος, "All-Blessed Mother of God"), is one of the most famous Byzantine churches in Istanbul, Turkey, and was the last pre-Ottoman building to house the Ecumenical Patriarchate.. Converted in 1591 into the Fethiye Mosque (Turkish: Fethiye Camii, "mosque of the conquest"), it is today partly a museum housed in a side chapel or parekklesion. One of the most important examples of Constantinople's Palaiologan architecture, the church contains the largest quantity of Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul after the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church. The church-mosque is in the Çarşamba neighbourhood of the Fatih district inside the walled city of Istanbul.

Bulgarian St Stephen Church (Bulgarian: Църква "Свети Стефан"; Turkish: Sveti Stefan Kilisesi), also known as the Bulgarian Iron Church, is a Bulgarian Orthodox church in Balat, Istanbul, Turkey. It is famous for being made of prefabricated cast iron elements in the neo-Byzantine style. The church belongs to the Bulgarian minority in the city.

Saint Mary of the Mongols (full name in Greek: Θεοτόκος Παναγιώτισσα (pr. Theotókos Panaghiótissa, lit. "All-Holy Theotokos") or Παναγία Μουχλιώτισσα (pr. Panaghía Muchliótissa); Turkish name: Kanlı Kilise (meaning: Bloody Church), is an Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul. It is the only remaining Byzantine church of Constantinople that has never been converted to a mosque, always remaining open to the Greek Orthodox Church.

Boğdan Sarayi (Turkish for "Palace of Bogdania (Moldavia)") was an Eastern Orthodox church in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul. Erected in the Byzantine era, its original dedication is unknown. In the Ottoman era the small edifice, being dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra, was known as Agios Nikólaos tou Bogdansarághi (Greek: Ἅγιος Νικόλαος τοῦ Βογδανσαράγι). and was part of the Istanbul residence of the Moldavian hospodar′s legation to the Ottoman Porte. The building – whose parts above ground have almost completely disappeared – is a minor example of Byzantine architecture in Constantinople.

Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque (Turkish: Hırami Ahmet Paşa Mescidi) is a former Eastern Orthodox church converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. The small church, one among the 36 dedicated to Saint John the Baptist in Constantinople, was part of a monastery bearing the same name. Its full name was Saint John the Forerunner by-the-Dome (Greek: Ἃγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Πρόδρομος ἐν τῷ Τρούλλῳ, Hagios Ioannis ho Prodromos en tō Trullō). It is the smallest Byzantine church of Constantinople still extant and has never been studied.

Çarşamba is a small part of the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey, close to the Fatih Mosque. It is one of the most conservative areas of the city. According to the 17th-century Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi, the district takes its name from the town of Çarşamba on the Black Sea coast since, after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, this part of the city was repopulated with people from Çarşamba. However, others think it acquired its name from the large Wednesday (Çarşamba in Turkish) Market held here every week. The neighbourhood is home to two Byzantine churches that were converted into mosques after the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453: the Fethiye and Hirami Ahmet Pasha mosques. Çarşamba is also home to the Sultan Selim Mosque, built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent for his father Yavuz Sultan Selim (Selim the Grim in English) whose shrine stands in the grounds. The mosque is usually attributed to Mimar Sinan although there is no record of it in the official list of his works. it was a favourite with the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier who admired its simplicity of form. Here, too, is the İsmail Ağa Mosque, built in 1724, and named after a Şeyhülislam named İsmail Efendi (1645-1725). Its congregation has a particular reputation for conservatism.

Phanar Greek Orthodox College or Phanar Roman Orthodox Lyceum (Turkish: Özel Fener Rum Lisesi), known in Greek as the Great School of the Nation (Greek: Μεγάλη του Γένους Σχολή, Megáli toú Genous Scholí), is the oldest surviving and most prestigious Greek Orthodox school in Istanbul, Turkey. The school, like all minority schools in Turkey, is a secular school.

The Kefeli Mosque (Turkish: Kefeli Câmîi, meaning "the mosque of the Caffariotes", after the inhabitants of the city of Caffa in Crimea, or also Kefeli Mescidi, where Mescit is the Turkish word for a small mosque) is a former Eastern Orthodox church, later jointly officiated by Roman Catholics and Armenians, and finally converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. The Catholic Church was dedicated to Saint Nicholas. Its date of dedication as an Eastern Orthodox church is unknown, but it is commonly identified with the 9th-century Monastery of Manuel (Greek: Μονὴ τοῦ Μανουήλ). The interest of Kefeli Mosque arises because it repurposes the early Christian basilica form during the later Byzantine period.

The 557 Constantinople earthquake took place on the night of December 14. This earthquake, described in the works of Agathias, John Malalas, and Theophanes the Confessor, caused great damage to Constantinople, then capital of the Byzantine Empire in a region frequently afflicted with earthquakes. More minor quakes had preceded the large event, including two in April and October respectively. The main quake in December was of unparalleled ferocity, and "almost completely razed" the city. It caused damage to the Hagia Sophia which contributed to the collapse of its dome the next year, as well as damaging the walls of Constantinople to the extent that Hun invaders were able to penetrate it with ease the following season.