St. Paraskeva Church, Giannitsa

The St. Paraskeva Church (Ιερός Ναός Αγίας Παρασκευής) is a Greek Orthodox church in the town of Giannitsa, in northern Greece, dedicated to Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans, and belonging to the archdiocese of Edessa, Pella and Almopia. It was originally an Ottoman mosque that was converted into a church following the incorporation of Giannitsa and the rest of Greek Macedonia into Greece in the early twentienth century.

History
The building was originally built as a Muslim mosque built in the fifteenth century, probably by one of the descendants of Gazi Evrenos, the founder of Giannitsa, and described by Ottoman traveller and explorer Evliya Çelebi as a mosque made of large stones. Its name during the years it functioned as a mosque was Yakup Bey Mosque (in Yakup Bey Camii). The older complex included a tekke as well.

In 1947-1948, Archimandrite Nicander Papaioannou, the owner of the plot and the building, turned the mosque into a church. In 1951, he donated the church and the entire plot to the Metropolitanate of Edessa and Pella. The church then functioned as a monastery for about forty years with the appropriate utility rooms and lodgings. Ever since October 1995, the church has served as a parish church, with a cemetery built next to it.

Eventually a larger church was built next to this one.

The church was declared a historical monument on June 13 1990.

Architecture
The original building is the posterior part of today's church – an octagonal building, typical of the fifteenth century mausoleums, with a 3.5 m long wall and a 7 m. tall dome. Later when it served as a monastery, several architectural changes were made such as a bell tower being added to it on the site of the destroyed minaret, though with the exception of the addition of the bell tower and the sanctuary, no extreme changes took place.

Inner decoration of the church is the work of the painters Karlas, Viron and Avramidis. The icons in there are the work of monks from the Holy Spirit Monastery in Oropos.