St Nicola church

About

The Church of Saint Nicholas (Greek: Ιερός Ναός Αγίου Νικολάου) is a Greek Orthodox church in the town of Kavala, in the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region of Greece. It was built during Ottoman period as a mosque, called the Ibrahim Pasha Mosque (Turkish: İbrahim Paşa Camii), before it was converted into a church in modern times.

The building was erected in 1530 during the Ottoman rule of Macedonia as an Islamic mosque, perhaps on the site of a pre-existing Christian church, by Ibrahim Pasha, vizier to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and it was the largest mosque in Kavala.

In the 1920s the mosque was converted into a church for Christian worship, dedicated to Saint Nicholas ; the bell-tower was built upon the base of the destroyed minaret. On the eastern side of the church there is a mural depicting the arrival of Apostle Paul in the port.