The Chora Church in Istanbul, known in Turkish as Kariye, is a former Byzantine church famed for its interior mosaics and frescoes. The present building dates from the eleventh century and was rebuilt in the twelfth, but its greatest decoration was added in the early fourteenth century, funded by the statesman Theodore Metochites, whose portrait appears above the entrance. Its scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin are among the finest examples of late Byzantine art. After the Ottoman conquest the building became a mosque in the early sixteenth century and was later restored as a museum in the 1940s and 1950s. In 2020 it was converted into a mosque again, and it reopened for worship in 2024.
Before and after
- from 1000 to 1200Rise of Romanesque art
- from 10th century to 20th centuryFoot binding
- 11th centuryConstruction of Winchester Cathedral
- from 11th century to 18th centuryHouse of Habsburg
- 11th centuryConstruction of Chora Church
- from 1005 to 1797Republic of Genoa
- 1006Construction of Gonbad-e Qabus
- 1006SN 1006
- 1006The brightest supernova in recorded history appears
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- 802 CEConstruction of Angkor Wat
- from 2 February 962 CE to 6 August 1806Holy Roman Empire
- 990 CEConstruction of Château de Montsoreau
- from c. 1113 to 1150Suryavarman II builds Angkor Wat
- 1193Origins of Chernobyl
- 1373Construction of Leaning Tower of Pisa
The era
This moment belongs to the Medieval world (500 CE to 1500 CE), kingdoms, faiths and trade routes.