Lably
Skip to content

The Chora

Medieval church and mosque in Istanbul

  • 13 min read
  • 5 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Mosque, Mosaic and Earthquake

Lab · Class 8–12Archaeology of DelhiLab · Class 11Cell: The Unit of Life — Animated Chapter FilmLab · Class 9–11Cell – Structure & FunctionsLabDisaster Management

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. The interior is covered with some of the finest surviving Byzantine Christian mosaics and frescoes, which were protected and left in plain sight during Muslim worship throughout much of the Ottoman era. They were restored after the building was secularized and turned into a museum.

The church is located in the western Fatih district of Istanbul. It stands on sedimentary layers and anthropogenic infills on a slope descending towards the north. It is oriented east-west, as are typical Byzantine churches throughout the city.

History

First phase (4th century)

The Chora Church was originally built in the early 4th century as part of a monastery complex outside the city walls of Constantinople erected by Constantine the Great, to the south of the Golden Horn. However, when Theodosius II's Praetorian prefect Anthemius built the formidable Theodosian walls in 413–414, the church became incorporated within the city's defences, but retained the name Chora (for the presumed symbolism of the name see below).

Second phase (11th century)

The majority of the fabric of the current building dates from 1077–1081, when Maria Doukaina, the mother-in-law of Alexius I Comnenus, rebuilt the Chora Church as an inscribed cross or quincunx: a popular architectural style of the time. Early in the 12th century, the church suffered a partial collapse, perhaps due to an earthquake.

Third phase: new decoration (14th century)

The church was rebuilt by Isaac Comnenus, Alexius's third son. However, it was only after the third phase of building, two centuries after, that the church as it stands today was completed. The powerful Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites endowed the church with many of its fine mosaics and frescoes. Theodore's impressive decoration of the interior was carried out between circa 1310 and 1317. The mosaic work is the finest example of the Palaeologian Renaissance. The artists remain unknown. A renowned classical scholar as well as statesman, Theodore donated his personal library to the Chora monastery, as well. Later on, between 1315 and 1321, Theodore Metochites, the Grand Logothete of the Treasury, commissioned the construction of the funerary chapel, outer buttress supports, and the narthexes. In 1328, Theodore was sent into exile by the usurper Andronicus III Palaeologus. However, he was allowed to return to the city two years later, and lived out the last two years of his life as a monk in his Chora Church.

Until the Conquest of Constantinople

In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the monastery was home to the scholar Maximus Planudes, who was responsible for the restoration and reintroduction of Ptolemy's Geography to the Byzantines and, ultimately, to Renaissance Italy. During the last siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria, considered the protector of the City, was brought to Chora in order to assist the defenders against the assault of the Ottomans.

Kariye Mosque (c. 1500–1945)

Around fifty years after the fall of the city to the Ottomans, Hadım Ali Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Sultan Bayezid II, ordered the Chora Church to be converted into a mosque — Kariye Camii. The word Kariye is derived from the Greek name Chora. The architectural modifications were kept minimal with minor whitewashing and the addition of a brick minaret and mihrab. None altered the spatial organisation of the church. Ottoman records indicate maintenance rather than renovation. Due to the prohibition against iconic images in Islam, the mosaics and frescoes were covered by a layer of plaster. This and frequent earthquakes in the region have taken their toll on the artwork. Additionally, the intervention efforts of the 19th century, led by Evkaf Nezareti, flattened the original domed roof profile, and masked the Late Byzantine silhouette.

Museum, art restoration (1945–2020)

In 1945 the site was secularized and designated a museum via Cabinet Decree, reflecting early Republican efforts to position Byzantine monuments as universal patrimony. In 1945, the building was designated a museum by the Turkish government. In 1948, the American scholars Thomas Whittemore and Paul A. Underwood, from the Byzantine Institute of America and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, sponsored a restoration program. From that time on, the building ceased to be a functioning mosque. In 1958, it was opened to the public as a museum, Kariye Müzesi.

Reconversion to a mosque (2020–2024)

In 2005, the Association of Permanent Foundations and Service to Historical Artifacts and Environment filed a lawsuit to challenge the status of the Chora Church as a museum. In November 2019, the Turkish Council of State, Turkey's highest administrative court, ordered that it was to be reconverted to a mosque. In August 2020, its status changed to a mosque.

The move to convert Chora Church into a mosque was condemned by the Greek Foreign Ministry and by Greek Orthodox and Protestant Christians. This led to a sharp rebuke by Turkey.

On Friday, 30 October 2020, Muslim prayers were held for the first time after 72 years.

The building was opened for Muslim worship on 6 May 2024.

Sign in to keep reading

4 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Religious figures

JesusFirst-century Jewish preacher and religious leaderMuhammadFounder of Islam (c. 570–632)The BuddhaFounder of BuddhismMary, mother of JesusMother of JesusPaul the ApostleChristian apostle and missionary (c. 5 – c. 64/65)Pope John Paul IIHead of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005