Saint Mary of the Mongols in Fener: the Byzantine church of Istanbul that never became a mosque

To find it you have to climb. In the Fener neighbourhood, within the district of Fatih, the streets uphill grow steep and rise up to the large red-brick building of the Fener Greek Orthodox College (Fener Rum Lisesi), which dominates the Golden Horn. Beside it, behind a high wall and a gate that is almost always shut, stands the Church of Saint Mary of the Mongols, in Turkish Kanlı Kilise, the "Bloody Church", a name linked to the fighting that took place here during the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

A unique distinction

Its distinction is precise and verifiable: it is the only Byzantine church of Constantinople that has remained uninterruptedly a Greek Orthodox place of worship. The others were turned into mosques or museums; this one was not. The credit goes to a series of firmans, the Ottoman imperial decrees. Mehmed II granted the building to the mother of Christodoulos, the Greek architect who had worked on the Fatih Mosque, and Bayezid II confirmed the grant. Those documents protected it from attempts at conversion under the later sultans. Even today it is an active church, with Sunday liturgies and an interior dense with icons: not an emptied monument, but a place that works.

Maria Palaiologina

The earlier history is equally dense. The foundress who gave it its present appearance, around 1281, was Maria Palaiologina, illegitimate daughter of Emperor Michael VIII and widow of Abaqa Khan, the Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate: hence the nickname "of the Mongols" and the Greek Mouchliotissa. Having returned to Constantinople, she rebuilt the church and was its ktetorissa, its founder. Maria Palaiologina herself is the kneeling female figure, identified as the nun Melane, who appears in the famous Deesis mosaic in the narthex of the Chora church (Kariye), a short distance away: a direct thread between two of the most fascinating Byzantine sites in the neighbourhood.

The architecture

The building's plan is striking. It is a rare tetraconch: a central dome resting on four semi-domes arranged in a cross, a solution described as unique in the Byzantine architecture of Constantinople. The south side was later demolished and rebuilt with three naves, but the four-apse core remains legible. Inside are preserved icons of the 13th and 14th centuries, a mosaic icon of the Virgin and, on the eastern wall, a large depiction of the Last Judgement. There is also a legend of an underground passage said to connect it to Hagia Sophia: an evocative story, undocumented.

How to visit it

Visiting it requires a small ritual. The gate is generally closed, but the church is open to visitors: you ring the bell beside the entrance, under the sign "Meryem Ana Rum Ortodoks Kilisesi", and a caretaker opens up and shows you in. It is worth trying even if everything looks locked; the hours vary, but you can usually enter until 17:00. On Sundays there are services. It is best to dress respectfully, as this is a living place of worship.

How to get there: from Eminönü you take the T5 tram along the Golden Horn to Fener, or the 55T bus from Taksim. Then you climb on foot towards the Fener Rum Lisesi and turn behind the college; the church is on the left, uphill. Pair it with a stroll through Fener and nearby Balat, with their colourful houses and Chora a short distance away: it is a Byzantine and Ottoman itinerary that can be done entirely on foot.

How to get there

The church stands in the Fener neighbourhood, in the district of Fatih on the European side of Istanbul, on a rise overlooking the Golden Horn, next to the large building of the Fener Greek Orthodox College. The most convenient way to arrive is the Golden Horn tram line (T5), which stops at Fener and Balat a few minutes' walk away; alternatively the Golden Horn ferries dock at the nearby piers of Fener and Balat. The reference airport is Istanbul Airport (IST), on the European side. It is worth arriving on foot, climbing up from the lanes of Balat, but you have to ring the bell to enter.