Historian from Xanthi to talk about Turkish monuments
Batzakidis' speech titled "The Ahmet Pasha Inn (Caravanserai) in Xanthi Yenice and the hidden secrets of its inscription 411 years later" will begin at 19.00 at the old tobacco warehouses building (Kapnapothiki "P" - Virginia Tsuderu Hall) in Xanthi.
Yorgos Batzakidis published a book in 2020 about Hacı Emin Ağa, who left important works in Xanthi and built the clock tower in the city square.
Batzakidis, who also served as the chairman of the Xanthi Tradesmen Federation for a while, also gave information about Xanthi's historical clock tower and the fountain, bath, and madrasah, which were in the square but were demolished in later years, in the Turkish brochure he published for the benefit of Turkish tourists before the carnival events.
13 km from Xanthi. Yenice (Genisea), located in the southeast, was known as Yenice-i Karasu during the Ottoman period. In Yenice, which is home to the largest and most important works of Ottoman architecture in the region, Evliya Çelebi said: “An elegant mosque with a lead-covered, domed, dome with its marble columned gallery in front, a madrasah, a school, a bath, a large and wide caravanserai. The owner of the works he described with the words ..” is Ekmekçioğlu Defterdar Ahmet Pasha.
The researcher and writer from Komotini, İsmail Bıçakçı, gives the following information about Ahmet Pasha in his book titled “Turkish Architectural Works in Greece”:
“… According to the historian Jozef Von Hammer, Ahmet Pasha first became a treasurer during the reign of Sultan Ahmet I, and then he was promoted to the chief treasury (Ministry of Finance). In 1618, Sultan Osman II. He died in the first year of his term. He is a great philanthropist as well as being very rich. This generous person has played a great role in building many mosques and many institutions for the benefit of society in Istanbul, Thrace, and Macedonia. As it is known, he had a mosque (today's New Mosque), a madrasah, a Turkish bath, and a library built in Komotini. Except for the bath, they are all standing.”
According to the information given by İsmail Bıçakçı, Nefes Baba lodge and a tomb in Fere, a mosque and a Mevlevihane in Thessaloniki are among the works of Ahmet Pasha.
