Chora Church, Kariye Museum (Kariye Müzesi)

The Chora Museum (Turkish Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, or Kariye Kilisesi — the Chora Museum, Mosque or Church) is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of a Byzantine church. The church is situated in the western, Edirnekapı district of Istanbul. In the 16th century, the church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman rulers, and it became a secularised museum in 1948. The interior of the building is covered with fine mosaics and frescoes.

History of Chora Church
The Chora Church was originally built outside the walls of Constantinople, to the south of the Golden Horn. Literally translated, the church’s full name was the Church of the Holy Saviour in the Country: although “The Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Fields” would be a more natural rendering of the name in English. (Greek ἡ Ἐκκλησία του Ἅγιου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῃ Χώρᾳ, hē Ekklēsia tou Hagiou Sōtēros en tē Chōra). The last part of that name, Chora, referring to its location originally outside of the walls, became the shortened name of the church. The original church on this site was built in the early 5th century, and stood outside of the 4th century walls of Constantine the Great. However, when Theodosius II built his formidable land walls in 413–414, the church became incorporated within the city’s defences, but retained the name Chora. The name must have carried symbolic meaning, as the mosaics in the narthex describe Christ as the Land of the Living (ἡ Χώρα των ζώντων, hē Chōra tōn zōntōn) and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the Container of the Uncontainable (ἡ Χώρα του Ἀχώρητου, hē Chōra tou Achōrētou).

The majority of the fabric of the current building dates from 1077–1081, when Maria Dukaina, 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. 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 much of its fine mosaics and frescos. Theodore’s impressive decoration of the interior was carried out between 1315 and 1321. The mosaic-work is the finest example of the Palaeologian Renaissance. The artists remain unknown. 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.

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.

Around fifty years after the fall of the city to the Ottomans, Atık Ali Paşa, the Grand Vizier of Sultan Bayezid II, ordered the Chora Church to be converted into a mosque — Kariye Camii. Due to the prohibition against iconic images in Islam, the mosaics and frescoes were covered behind a layer of plaster. This and frequent earthquakes in the region have taken their toll on the artwork.

In 1948, Thomas Whittemore and Paul A. Underwood, from the Byzantine Institute of America and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, sponsored a programme of restoration. 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.

Interior of Chora Church
The Chora Church is not as large as some of the other Byzantine churches of Istanbul (it covers 742.5 m²), but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in the beauty of its interior. The building divides into three main areas: the entrance hall or narthex, the main body of the church or naos, and the side chapel or parecclesion. The building has six domes: two in the esonarthex, one in the parecclesion and three in the naos.

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Chora Church (Kariye Museum)

The Kariye Museum (Church of the Holy Savior in Chora, Chora Church) has the best Byzantine mosaics in the region. If you can spare two hours, you must see them. (Note: the museum is closed Wednesday.)

As the Kariye/Chora Church is out-of-the-way, one of the best ways to visit is on a half-day Istanbul city tour that also visits the nearby city walls, Tekfur Sarayi, Yedikule, etc. More…

Originally built in the 4th century as the ‘Church of the Holy Savior Outside the Walls’ or ‘in the Country’ (chora), it was indeed outside the walls built by Constantine the Great.

The building you see was built in the late 11th century, with lots of repairs and restructuring in the following centuries. Virtually all of the interior decoration—the famous mosaics and the less renowned but equally striking mural paintings—dates from about 1320.

The mosaics are breathtaking. The first ones are those of the dedication, to Jesus and Mary. Then come the offertory ones: Theodore Metochites, builder of the church, offering it to Jesus.

The two small domes of the inner narthex have portraits of all Jesus’s ancestors back to Adam. A series outlines Mary’s life, and another, Jesus’s early years. Yet another series concentrates on Jesus’s ministry.

In the nave are three mosaics: of Jesus, of Mary as Teacher, and of the Dormition of Mary (turn around to see this one-it’s over the main door you just entered).

South of the nave is the Parecclesion, a side chapel built to hold the tombs of the church’s founder and relatives. The frescos, appropriately, deal with the theme of death and resurrection.

The church was enclosed within the walls built by the Emperor Theodosius II in 413, less than 100 years after Constantine, so the church ‘outside the walls’ has in fact been ‘in the city’ for 1550 years.

For four centuries after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul it served as a mosque (Kariye Camii), and is now a museum (Kariye Müzesi) because of its priceless mosaics.

To get to the Kariye Museum (closed Wednesday), if you don’t take an Istanbul city tour, a taxi is easiest but most expensive.

You can save money (but not time) by taking any bus that stops at Edirnekapi.

When you reach Edirnekapi, ask for directions by saying Kariye (KAH-ree-yeh) to anyone you see. The museum is only a five-minute walk east of the boulevard. Neighborhood people will happily point the way through the maze of tiny streets.

On the south side of the Kariye Müzesi is the Kariye Oteli, housed in a renovated Ottoman mansion. Asitane (AH-see-TAH-neh, an Ottoman sobriquet for Istanbul), the hotel’s garden restaurant, features fine Ottoman cuisine and excellent service in a refined atmosphere, at suitably lofty prices.

The building facing the Kariye Museum was once the Kariye Muhallebicisi or Pudding Shop, an old Istanbul institution.

From Kariye, head west to the city walls, then north again, and you’ll soon come to the Palace of Constantine Porphyrogenetus, the Tekfur Sarayi (tehk-FOOR sar-rah-yuh), closed in 2006 for restoration and still closed in early 2009.

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Times readers’ underrated destinations of the world – Kariye Museum, Istanbul, Turkey

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