Because of its long history of transformation, appropriation, and contestation, Istanbul's religious heritage dating back to Byzantine times is a potential showcase for the city's multiple and multilayered pasts. In this chapter the challenges in dealing with this particular heritage are illustrated with the case study of Fethiye Mosque and Museum, a complex consisting of a former church that was converted into a mosque as well as a chapel (now museum) that apparently kept its Christian form and appearance. The chapter seeks to establish what constitutes the Fethiye complex as a heritage site and proposes possible solutions for unlocking and representing its complex history and therewith embedding and integrating it in the city's social and touristic infrastructure.

On the fifth hill of Istanbul's historic peninsula in the neighbourhood of Çarşamba stands the building complex that is known as the Fethiye Mosque and Museum (Fethiye Camii and Müzesi). The museum part of the complex can be entered via a ticket gate, which gives access to a courtyard where fragments of architectural sculpture are arranged. On the north side of the courtyard a multi-storeyed cubical building of stone and brickwork, surmounted by three domes, is situated to the right, abutted by a lower, one-storey structure and a minaret to the left.

Having entered the building via a portal in the left-hand corner one sees the interior of a rather narrow but relatively long and high structure consisting of different spaces with an apse at the eastern end.