The Biography of a Landmark: The Chora Monastery and the Kariye Camii in Constantinople/Istanbul from Late Antiquity to the 21st Century

Studer-Karlen, Manuela (27 April 2021). The Biography of a Landmark: The Chora Monastery and the Kariye Camii in Constantinople/Istanbul from Late Antiquity to the 21st Century (Unpublished). In: The Biography of a Landmark: The Chora Monastery and the Kariye Camii in Constantinople/Istanbul from Late Antiquity to the 21st Century. Fribourg. 27.- 28. April 2021.

Following the return of the Byzantine court to Constantinople in 1261 and the end of the Latin presence, the city’s artistic patronage was enriched by dynamic aristocratic families connected with the imperial house. By 1321, the old monastery of the Holy Saviour in the Country (Ἱερά Μονὴ τοῦ Ἁγίου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῇ Χώρᾳ), also known as Saint Savior in Chora, located in the northwestern area of the peninsula and in the shadow of the Theodosian land walls, was refurbished by Grand Logothete Theodore Methochites. Among the architectural renovations carried out by Theodore were notable additions to the monastic church, including those for an inner and an outer narthex and a funerary chapel, or parekklesion, to the south. These architectural “frames” for the earlier phases of the building allowed for elaborate decorative programs. The mosaic cycles of the Life of the Virgin and of the Infancy and Ministry of Christ covered surfaces in the narthexes, while the parekklesion was decorated with paintings centering on the Anastasis (or the Resurrection) in the apse. The monument represents a crucial addition to the panorama of Byzantine monumental art, outstanding for its originality and artistic quality.

By the early 16th century and some decades after the Ottoman conquest of the city, Saint Savior in Chora was converted into a mosque by Grand Vizir Hadım Atik Ali Paşa. The Chora was part of a large group of Byzantine-period churches in Istanbul whose function was modified to serve a new religious community. The decorative structure of the church was covered with plaster along with other adaptations. In the Ottoman capital alone, nearly four dozen Byzantine churches converted into mosques underwent architectural adjustments to serve new functional purposes as well as new social groups. Their survival throughout the Ottoman period is largely due to their conversion into mosques.
In the early years of the Turkish Republic, several of these buildings which were largely abandoned and little used were progressively turned into museums, with their Byzantine artistic decoration becoming the center of conservation and research interests. Following the interventions of Thomas Whittemore and Paul A. Underwood and the Byzantine Institute of America, which aimed at revealing the decorative layout of the building, the Chora opened to the public in 1958 as the Kariye Museum.
Subsequent to an order in 2019 by the Turkish Council of State that paved the way for its usage as a mosque, the year 2020 marked the reversal of the status of the Kariye Museum.

Architectures of conversion, of artistic and religious replacement, are not limited to the Ottoman period, to the city of Istanbul or to the case of the Chora/Kariye. The Biography of a Landmark: the Chora/Kariye will take place over two days, April 27 and 28, 2021. The first day aims at introducing the subject of conversions to graduate students with two keynote presentations and graduate students papers. The second day will center on presentations by specialists in the field focusing on aspects of the biographies of Chora/Kariye.

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