The present day St. Saviour Church of Chora dates back from the late 11th century and originally this was a church outside Constantine's original city walls and so it was named the Church of St Saviour in Chora... this literally means in the country side.
The Church was converted into a Mosque in 1510 by the grand vezier of Beyazid II and there after bore the name Kariye Mosque and now it is called KARIYE Mosque & Museum (Kariye Cami ve Müzesi).
The museum offers the finest example of Byzantine mosaic work in the city, as well as superb fourteenth-century frescoes depicting the Genealogy of Christ, the Life of the Virgin and Christ's Ministry.
This complex is often passed over because of it's inconvenient location in Istanbul's western edge near remnants of the old Constantinian Walls, built by Emperor Theodosius II in AD 413.
At Church of St.Saviour in Chora walls protected Constantinople from numerous onslaughts and were breached only twice: by the crusaders in the 1200s and by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453.
Even though the Church was converted to a Mosque after the Conquest, the mosaics were merely whitewashed over and thus have been preserved for display in this secular museum, no longer used for any religious purposes.
St. Saviour Chora (Kariye Mosque & Museum ) is open everyday (except Tuesday) from 9:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon. Ph.(212) 631 92 41
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