Patriarch Nephon I of Constantinople is named as the founder of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, in inscriptions dated 1310 to 1314. Carbon-14 analysis instead points to about 1329 for the whole structure. The article names no architect. It was originally the katholikon of a monastery.
The Byzantine church is a composite five-domed cross-in-square building with four supporting columns. The narthex has a U-shaped ambulatory with galleries and small corner domes. The exterior has varied brickwork patterns, and the upper interior has mosaics modeled on Constantinopolitan work.
The Ottomans converted it to a mosque around 1520 to 1530 and plastered over the mosaics and frescoes. It was reconsecrated as a church in 1912. UNESCO inscribed it in 1988.
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