Great Fire of 1660

Two-thirds of Constantinople (now Istanbul) were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1660. The chronicler Abdi Paşa estimated that the fire destroyed 280,000 houses and burned for approximately forty-nine hours.

During the reconstruction of the city, the Ottomans enacted unprecedented policies concerning Christian and Jewish houses of worship. In previous periods, the Ottomans had usually allowed the rebuilding of churches and synagogues. However, in this period they did not.