St. Paraskeva Church
Ιερός Ναός Αγίας Παρασκευής
St. Paraskeva Church
40°47′08.3″N 22°24′51.4″E / 40.785639°N 22.414278°E / 40.785639; 22.414278
Location	Giannitsa
Country	Greece
Language(s)	Greek
Denomination	Greek Orthodox
History
Status	Open
Architecture
Architectural type	Ottoman
Completed	15th century
Specifications
Number of domes	1
Number of spires	1
Administration
Metropolis	Metropolis of Edessa, Pella and Almopia [el]

The St. Paraskeva Church (Greek: Ιερός Ναός Αγίας Παρασκευής) is a Greek Orthodox church in the town of Giannitsa, in northern Greece, dedicated to Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans, and belonging to the archdiocese of Edessa, Pella and Almopia [el].^[1][2][3] It was originally an Ottoman mosque that was converted into a church following the incorporation of Giannitsa and the rest of Greek Macedonia into Greece in the early twentienth century.

The building was originally built as a Muslim mosque built in the fifteenth century, probably by one of the descendants of Gazi Evrenos, the founder of Giannitsa,^[4] and described by Ottoman traveller and explorer Evliya Çelebi as a mosque made of large stones. Its name during the years it functioned as a mosque was Yakup Bey Mosque (in Turkish: Yakup Bey Camii).^[5] The older complex included a tekke as well.^[6]

In 1947-1948, Archimandrite Nicander Papaioannou, the owner of the plot and the building, turned the mosque into a church.^[7][8] In 1951, he donated the church and the entire plot to the Metropolitanate of Edessa and Pella. The church then functioned as a monastery for about forty years with the appropriate utility rooms and lodgings. Ever since October 1995, the church has served as a parish church, with a cemetery built next to it.^[8]

Eventually a larger church was built next to this one.

The church was declared a historical monument on June 13 1990.^[7]

The original building is the posterior part of today's church – an octagonal building, typical of the fifteenth century mausoleums, with a 3.5 m long wall and a 7 m. tall dome. Later when it served as a monastery, several architectural changes were made such as a bell tower being added to it on the site of the destroyed minaret,^[2] though with the exception of the addition of the bell tower and the sanctuary, no extreme changes took place.^[6]

Inner decoration of the church is the work of the painters Karlas, Viron and Avramidis.^[1][2] The icons in there are the work of monks from the Holy Spirit Monastery in Oropos.^[3]

• List of cathedrals in Greece
• Saint Irene church, Athens
• Eastern Orthodoxy in Greece

• Ameen, Ahmed (2017). Islamic architecture in Greece: Mosques. Alexandria: Center for Islamic Civilization studies, Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
• Stavridopoulos, Ioannis (2015). Μνημεία του άλλου: η διαχείριση της οθωμανικής πολιτιστική κληρονομιάς της Μακεδονίας από το 1912 έως σήμερα [Other People's Monuments: the Management of the Ottoman Cultural Heritage of Macedonia from 1912 to the present] (Thesis) (in Greek). Ioannina: University of Ioannina.