Hagia Irene

The Church of St Irene stands in the first courtyard of Topkapi and is one of the few Byzantine churches in Istanbul not converted into a mosque after 1453.

The building's history

The first church on the site went up under Constantine. The present building took shape after the Nika riot of 532 and acquired its form under Constantine V in the middle of the eighth century, when the dome was rebuilt after an earthquake. It belongs to a type rare in Constantinople, a domed basilica with an elongated narthex and galleries.

A cross instead of a mosaic

Almost nothing of the decoration remains inside: bare brick walls, rows of windows in the drum, and the semicircular steps of the synthronon in the apse where the clergy sat. In the conch, instead of a mosaic with figures, there is a plain black cross, a rare surviving monument of the iconoclast period, when images were forbidden.

The atrium

The courtyard on the west side is considered the only surviving example in Istanbul of an atrium attached to a Byzantine church.

What came later

Under the Ottomans the building held weapons and trophies, and later it housed the country's first military museum.

Visiting

The church is not in use for worship: it opens for visits and concerts, and its high vaults give a long echo that performers value. It has its own ticket but is also covered by the combined ticket with Topkapi Palace.

Address

First courtyard of Topkapi, Istanbul · Sultanahmet

Opening hours

Daily 9:00–17:30; closed Tuesday

Prices

1050 TL; also on the combined Topkapi ticket

On the map