Istanbul, Turkey
Coordinates: 41.031208, 28.939192
The Kariye Mosque, or the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora is a medieval Greek Orthodox church used as a mosque today in the Edirnekapı neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey.
The neighborhood is situated in the western part of the municipality (belediye) of the Fatih district. The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was built in the style of Byzantine architecture.
Almost a month after the iconic Hagia Sophia was reverted to a mosque, another Istanbul landmark converted into a museum from a mosque has had its function restored.
Kariye Museum, which was known as Chora Church, is located near the city’s ancient walls. It was originally built as a church in the sixth century. It was converted into a mosque in 1511 by Bayezid II, son of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II who converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque after his conquest of Istanbul from Byzantine Empire.
The mosque was converted into a museum in 1945 with a government decree, more than a decade after Hagia Sophia’s conversion. It currently hosts 14th-century Byzantine mosaics and frescoes showing scenes from biblical stories.
The interior of the building is covered with some of the oldest and finest surviving Byzantine Christian mosaics and frescoes; they were uncovered and restored after the building was secularized and turned into a museum.
The mosaics in this church will beat anything you’ve seen before as they have only been uncovered from underneath the plaster when the building was converted from mosque to museum some sixty years ago. The church is very small and yes, half of it is under renovation, but it will still be one of the highlights of our Istanbul trip.
