Defterdar Mosque
It was the constant reference point of the pre-seismic fibre of the city. A road arbitrarily designed, the road of “Halouvazia” (currently Ifaistou and Apellou streets) led from the western side of the Defterdar Mosque, in the Foro square, to the Halouvazia neighbourhood and the remote New Gate settlement to the south-west Muslim quarter (junction of Gregoriou E’ and B. Ipirou streets).
Morouk Mosque
The Morouk Mosque was a small mosque with a vaulted roof, without a minaret, built in the middle of the “Halouvazia” quarter in 1892 by Abdul Hamid II.
The Artisans Quarter (Quartiere Artigiano) or “Halouvazia”
Halouvazia was a small industrial area, with all sorts of housing and craftsmen shops, to serve the needs of the local population – and is still the central core of the urban fabric. It was part of the great Muslim quarter of the period before the earthquake as it had developed during the Ottoman period.
The Buildings
Along Ifaistou and Apollou streets, there are still representative samples of folk architecture of the period before the earthquake, with Aegean or Byzantine influences as well as several social houses of the post-seismic era (1934-1937) organised by the social housing construction program of the fascist period of the Italian administration (1912-1943).
