Unspecified/General

Hidden in the quiet streets near the old land walls in the Edirnekapi district, the Kariye Mosque, long known as the Chora Church, holds what many regard as the finest surviving Byzantine mosaics and frescoes in the world. The name Chora means the country or the fields, recalling a time when the original church stood outside the city walls, and a religious building has occupied the site since at least the early Byzantine centuries. The present structure dates largely from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but its glory comes from the early fourteenth, when the scholar and statesman Theodore Metochites paid for a sumptuous redecoration, covering its inner and outer narthexes with golden mosaics depicting the lives of Christ and the Virgin, and adding a side chapel with frescoes of the resurrection and the last judgement of extraordinary power and tenderness. After the Ottoman conquest the church was converted into a mosque and the images covered; in the twentieth century it became a museum and the mosaics were painstakingly uncovered and restored, and in recent years it has again been opened for Muslim worship as a mosque, with arrangements to allow the art to be seen. The intimate scale of the building, the shimmer of gold across its vaults and the human warmth of its figures make a visit a quieter and more contemplative experience than the great monuments of Sultanahmet. Set a little away from the main tourist trail and reached by bus or taxi near the city walls, often combined with a walk along the fortifications, the Kariye is a destination for those willing to seek out one of the supreme achievements of late Byzantine art, rewarding the journey with images of rare beauty. The mosaics and frescoes are remarkable not only for their gold and colour but for their humanity, the figures shown with movement, emotion and tenderness that anticipate the developments of later European art, making the church a key monument in the story of painting as well as of Byzantium. The cycle of images, following the lives of Christ and the Virgin and culminating in the powerful scene of the resurrection in the side chapel, was among the last great flowerings of Byzantine art before the fall of the city. The patron Theodore Metochites, shown in one mosaic offering a model of the church to Christ, was a scholar and high official whose fortunes rose and fell with the empire he served. Because the building is small and the art repays slow, careful looking, it rewards an unhurried visit, and its position away from the crowds of Sultanahmet means it can often be enjoyed in relative peace, a quiet highlight for those who make the journey out to the old walls.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Dervis Ali, Kariye Cami Sk. No:18, Istanbul, Turkey