Chora Museum

The Chora Church was built outside the city walls of Constantinople in the beginning of the 4th century. However under Theodosius II, the walls extended and the church came within the city walls. The church was severely damaged due to an earthquake in the early 12th century and rebuilt by Isaac Comnenus. The re-building took almost two centuries, and the final monument is what we see now. Between the years 1315 - 1321, Theodore Metochites who was a typical Byzantine further beautified the monument with the best of mosaics and frescoes the world had at that time. In the 16th century, the church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman rulers that covered the mosaics and frescoes as it was against Islam. From 1948 to 1958, the church has gone through many series of restoration after which it was opened for public as a museum.