Yesterday afternoon we went to the church of St. Saviour in Chora – Chora meaning country, although it can no longer be said to be in the countryside since the population of Istanbul has grown from 1.5 million in 1970 to 12 million now. It is known in Turkish as Kariye Camii (I am conscious that the nomenclature in confusing) and is a wonderful survival of Byzantine mosaics, which were discovered under plaster in the 1860s and later restored by the Byzantine Instiute of America, and, to my mind even more remarkable, the frescoes, so nearly contemporary to the work of Giotto (as works of the 1320s, they just postdate Giotto) and so full of energetic vigour.
I only photographed the Pantocrator who greets one over the door as one goes in:
I also photographed the Anastasis in the side chapel, Adam being hauled towards his resurrection by the hand of Christ:
And a detail of the door into the nave, which is closed for restoration:
