Chora Church
The Chora Church or Kariye Mosque (Turkish: Kariye Camii) is a former church, now converted to a mosque (for the second time), in the Edirnekapı neighborhood of Fatih district, Istanbul, Turkey. It is mainly famous for its outstanding Late Byzantine mosaics and frescos.
Kariye Mosque
Greek Orthodox Church (before 1500),
Sunni Islam (1500–1945, 2020–present), Directorate of Religious Affairs of Turkey (1924–1945, 2020–present)
Mosque (since 2020)
Church
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The building is an example of Byzantine architecture. In the 16th century, during the Ottoman era, it was converted into a mosque; it became a museum in 1945, and was turned back into a mosque in 2020 by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.[1][2] The interior of the building is covered with some of the finest surviving Byzantine Christian mosaics and frescoes, which were left in plain sight during Muslim worship throughout much of the Ottoman era.[3] They were restored after the building was secularized and turned into a museum.
The neighborhood is situated in the western part of the municipality of Fatih district.
Covered mosaics with curtains
Covered mosaics with curtains
View from the naos toward the apse
Christ
Virgin and Child (detail)
Position of the Koimesis mosaic
Koimesis (central part)
Koimesis (detail)
Koimesis (detail)
Name[edit]
The original, 4th-century monastery containing the church was outside Constantinople's city walls. Literally translated, the church's full name was the Church of the Holy Saviour in the Country (Greek: ἡ Ἐκκλησία τοῦ Ἁγίου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῇ Χώρᾳ, hē Ekklēsia tou Hagiou Sōtēros en tēi Chōrāi). It is therefore sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Saint Saviour". However, "The Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Fields" would be a more natural rendering of the name in English. The last part of the Greek name, Chora, referring to its location originally outside of the walls, became the shortened name of the church. The name must have carried symbolic meaning, as the mosaics in the narthex describe Christ as the Land of the Living (ἡ Χώρα τῶν ζώντων, hē Chōra tōn zōntōn) and Mary, the mother of Jesus, as the Container of the Uncontainable (ἡ Χώρα τοῦ Ἀχωρήτου, hē Chōra tou Achōrētou).