– Defterdar mosque. It is located at Eleftherias Square and owes its name to the finance minister of the Sultan, Ibrahim Effendi, who funded its construction. Two elaborate staircases based on columns lead to the mihrab and the prayer hall on the second floor of the mosque. It is considered an exceptional example of Islamic art as its superstructure is made of carved stones (that are laid in courses so that each vertical joint of a course comes over the middle of a stone below) and its dome is based on 12 arches.
– Lotzia mosque. It was built in 1786 right opposite from the Plane tree of Hippocrates at the location of a former byzantine church by Djeza’irli Hasan Pasha, an admiral of the Ottoman fleet. Materials taken from the ancient town (most probably from the shrine of Hercules) were used for the construction of the mosque. The prayer hall is on the first floor. The mosque has 61 Mauritanian style windows. The ground floor is divided in two spaces: the one in the west with the arched arcade (called “lontzia”) and the one in the east with the cells where 10% of the agricultural production that the Ottoman authorities collected as a tax (called “haratsi”) was kept. The Plane tree of Hippocrates casts its shadow on the wall fount of the mosque.
– The Hatzi Pasha mausoleum. It is a rectangular stone building with a small dome at the corner of Ippokratous and Mitropoleos Street. It houses the marble sarcophagus of Hatzi Pasha, an officer of the island that was killed during a pirate raid in 1527.
– The minaret of Eski Tzami (=old mosque). The famous Eski Tzami at the Diagoras Square collapsed during the earthquake of 1933. The only thing remaining today is the minaret of the mosque. It is believed to have been built in 1586. If that is true, then it is the oldest Muslim monument on the island today.
