The Yedikule Mosque
Continuing through the fortress, you will eventually arrive at the innermost courtyard, where you will find the remains of the Fortresses mosque. A tall, brick, cylindrical structure with a stone base remains of what was once a minaret, or an Islamic architecture used to calling people to prayer five times each day. The last prisoners were held at the Yedikule until 1837, at which point a small mosque and fountain were erected in the inner courtyard, and garrison houses were built in the surrounding area. This little town, a new phase for the fortress, provides an indicator of Istanbul's transition into modernity, not yet in a respective, artifact of semi-conscious self-reflection for the city of Istanbul, the fortress in this time was still in use as a headquarters of defense, housing the garrison, but no longer represented the power of the Sultanate. In this period, it seems the power derived from the structures authoritarian, prison quality were as long gone as that derived from its air of splendor and mystique of the preceding period. Still in use, the collective understanding of the structure became one of partial retrospection and partial reinvention. In short, it began to transition into a more conscious form of lieux de memoire. It makes sense, then, that it town would ultimately be destroyed in favor of a girls school. By the 19th century, the houses of the small community living there were torn down, a girls school erected in their place. Without ties to its function as serious symbol of city safety and protection of power, the structure paved the way for its entrance into the modern world as a relic and a place for historical reflection.