Christian Heritage · 6 sites
Some places draw pilgrims for their scripture, others for centuries of prayer and tradition. From the quiet house above Ephesus where Mary is said to have spent her last years, to the church of St Nicholas and the great Byzantine churches of Istanbul, these are Turkey's most beloved Christian sanctuaries.
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High in the wooded hills above Ephesus stands a small stone house that tradition holds to be the last home of the Virgin Mary. Popes have prayed here, and pilgrims of every faith come for its stillness. Light a candle, leave a prayer on the wishing wall and drink from the spring below.
In the fourth century Nicholas was bishop of Myra, the town where Paul once changed ships on his way to Rome. His legendary kindness, and the gifts he secretly left for those in need, gave the world Santa Claus. His church in Demre still holds faded frescoes and the tomb where pilgrims have prayed for centuries.
On the hill of Ayasuluk, Emperor Justinian built a vast basilica over the place where tradition says John the Apostle was buried. Marble columns, a baptistery and the outline of the tomb remain. In the late afternoon, the view over Selçuk and the plain of Ephesus is unforgettable.
Behind its modest walls, Chora holds one of the finest sets of Byzantine art anywhere. Its fourteenth-century mosaics and frescoes tell the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary in glittering gold. Look up, and the Gospel unfolds across the domes, scene by scene.
In the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace stands one of the oldest churches in Istanbul, where the Second Ecumenical Council met in 381. Hagia Irene was never turned into a mosque, and its bare brick interior, with a simple cross in the apse, makes a quiet counterpoint to the grandeur of nearby Hagia Sophia.
In the old Greek quarter of Fener, the Church of St George is the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, spiritual centre of the world's Orthodox Christians. Its modest exterior hides a richly gilded interior, precious icons and venerated relics. It is a living church, not a museum.
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Christian Heritage
7 sitesThe Seven Churches of RevelationThe seven communities of the Book of Revelation, all in western Turkey.
4 sitesBiblical Sites & the Journeys of St PaulAntioch, Tarsus and Perge, on the roads of the apostles.
7 sitesCappadocia's Rock-Cut Churches & MonasteriesPainted cave churches and monasteries carved into volcanic rock.
3 sitesAncient Councils & the Foundations of ChristianityNicaea, Ephesus and the places where Christian belief took shape.
5 sitesEastern Christian Heritage & Historic MonasteriesThe Syriac monasteries of Mardin and the Armenian churches of Lake Van.Ready when you are
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