The Chora Church (Kariye)
The finest surviving set of Byzantine mosaics, in a small building well away from the queues.
- Builtchurch of the 11th–12th centuries; mosaics c. 1315–1321
- DistrictFatih
It is small and sits in a residential district by the land walls, so plenty of people leave it out. That is probably the most expensive mistake on an Istanbul itinerary.
The mosaics and frescoes date from the early fourteenth century, commissioned by Theodore Metochites, and show things Byzantine art did not usually show: movement, landscape, people in profile. The Anastasis, in the side chapel, is the best-known image.
Check access before going: the building has been through long restoration works and through changes of status in recent years.
What to look for
- The Anastasis, in the apse of the side chapel: Christ hauling Adam and Eve up by the wrists, the broken gates of hell under his feet.
- The cycle of the Virgin's life in the narthex — continuous narrative, panel by panel, like a fourteenth-century comic.
- The portrait of Theodore Metochites offering the church to Christ, in an enormous hat, above the central door.
- The small domes, with Christ's ancestors arranged in spokes.
Before you go
- Check access before going: the building has been through long works and changes of status.
- It is a long way from everything, out by the land walls. Pair it with Balat and Fener on the same route.
- It is small — forty-five minutes is enough, but they are forty-five minutes spent looking up.
- The light is poor. No flash; the frescoes are fourteenth-century.
