The treasures of Monastery of Chora

The treasures of Monastery of Chora

Turkey
Istambul(Constantinople)
Kariye Cami(Monastery of Chora)

The Monastery of Chora(Kariye Cami) is a very old Byzantine church at the periphery of Istambul(Constantinople). It is loaded with mosaics and frescoes considered among the finest specimens in the world. The church functioned as a world's Heritage Museum till recently that president Tayep Etzevid ordered to reconverted to mosque with all its decoration covered with curtains. His decision was condemned by all the civilized western world.

The Monastery of Chora is a very old Byzantine church firstly built at the early 4th century as a monastery complex south of the Golden Horn of Constantinople's city walls by emperor Constantine the Great. The majority of the current building dates from 1077-1081 when Byzantine emperor Alexius 1st Comnenus ordered the reconstruction of part of the church and his son Isaac Comnenus completed it.But it was only two centuries after that the church was brought to completion in the wat it stands today. By that time the powerful Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites endowed the church with its fine mosaics and frescoes considered till today as among the finest specimens of the Paleologian Renaissance.. The artist remains unknown till today!
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans(1453) sultan Bayezid 2nd ordered the church to be converted to a mosque(Kariye Cami) with all decoration covered with thic layers of plaster. In 1945 the church was declared as a museum of Turkish government and restauration was sponsored by the Byzantine Institute of America and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies.
In the photo the church as it stands today.