🔒 Liberation Mosque

Liberation Mosque, formerly the St. Mary's Cathedral or Holy Mother of God Church, is located in the Tepebaşı district of Şahinbey, Gaziantep, Turkey. Initially built as an Armenian Apostolic church, it was converted into a stable after the Armenian genocide and later into a jail. Sarkis Balyan, the Ottoman-Armenian architect serving Sultan Abdul Hamid II, designed the church. The building was constructed between 1892 and 1893, undertaken by the stonemason Sarkis Taşçıyan. The church was part of a complex which also contained a school and the administrative buildings of the dioceses of the kaza of Antep.