Pammakaristos Church, Istanbul

The Pammakaristos Church, located in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Carsamba, is a famous Byzantine church in Istanbul. The church is also known as “The Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos”, which means “All Blessed Mother of God”. In the year 1591, the church was converted into a mosque called Fethiye Cammi, which translates to “the mosque of the conquest” from the Turkish language. The church overlooks the Golden Horn.

Today a part of the church has been converted into a museum, and it contains the largest amounts of original Byzantine Mosaics after the Chora Church and Hagia Sophia in the city of Istanbul. The church is also one of the most important surviving examples of the beautiful Palaiologan architecture of Constantinople. The church was built between the 11th and 12th century, but scholars are still under dispute about the original date of construction.

The church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman Sultan Murad III, and the main building still remains a mosque today, but the parekklesion has been converted into a museum. Byzantine art can be studied in the church as many remaining panels of the original mosaics are still present in the church museum.