St. Savior ....Chora

This is not totally Ottoman, but it was rather breathtaking... I think I mentioned that our local guide, Arzu, is earning her PhD in Byzantine art, and she suggested we should see the mosaics at Chora. The small church was built in the third century outside the walls that had been built to enclose Constantinople...though a century later when Theodosius extended the walls, it was included. The mosaics date back to about 1320...... wow. I felt, please forgive me, that I was in a chapel shared by devout Christians with heavy influence by the Catholic and Mormon branches of Christianity. Catholic because of the heavy emphasis on Mary's role. Her whole life story from the anguish of her childless parents, to her assumption into heaven, is portrayed in the mosaics. By the way, much of the story line is derived from the apocryphal books of the Bible, so some of the stories were new to me. The Mormon reference is because there is heavy emphasis on genealogy. One gorgeous set of mosaics in a dome is a complete genealogy of Jesus, back to Adam.

There is also a lot of reference to the nativity of Christ, with a series of mosaics showing Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, their census/taxation, bringing forth the infant in the stable, the arrival of the magi....

During the Ottoman period most of the mosaics were covered with plaster, as in Aya Sofia, and some were damaged, but the remaining ones are breathtaking. There were also cats, one very pregnant one who seemed to feel her place was on the floor directly under the mosaic of the nativity. Very beautiful, all of it.