For the first time in over 100 years, Greece reopened the historic Yeni Mosque in Thessaloniki to facilitate Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramadan.
The event saw participation from about 100 individuals. The mosque, which had not been used for religious purposes since the early 1920s due to the aftermath of the war between Greece and Turkey and the subsequent population exchange, welcomed worshippers including Ismael Bedredin, a 66-year-old retiree, and Ali, a 23-year-old student from Turkey, who expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to pray there.
Constructed in 1902 by Italian architect Vitaliano Poselli, the Yeni Mosque originally served the Donme community, Jews who had converted to Islam.
After briefly housing refugees following the Greco-Turkish War in 1922, the building was repurposed as an archaeological museum and later, a municipal gallery.
Given Greece’s predominantly Orthodox Christian demographic, mosques are rare outside the Thrace region, which harbors a historic Muslim minority.
Athens, in particular, saw a resurgence in its Muslim population during the 2015 refugee crisis, leading to the opening of the city’s first official mosque in November 2020 after facing significant resistance from the Orthodox Church and nationalist groups, a project that spanned over a decade to complete.
