Many historians attribute the original structure to Michael VII Ducas, who reigned from 1071 to 1078, while others place the foundation in the Comnenian period, and Ernest Mamboury suggested the 8th century. Most scholars date it to the 11th to 12th centuries. The Comnenian church uses recessed-brick masonry, with two ambulatories and three apses.
Martha Glabas built a side chapel after 1310 in memory of her husband, a cross-in-square plan with five domes. The complex has the largest number of Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul after Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church, with a Pantocrator and twelve prophets in the main dome. The article gives no dimensions.
Sultan Murad III converted the church into the Fethiye Mosque, removing most interior walls and the apses, in 1591 according to the text. The Byzantine Institute restored the chapel as a museum in 1949. Restoration resumed in 2021, and was completed in 2024.
Comments