Chora Church, Istanbul, Turkey (Mar 2015)
My favorite church in all the world. “Chora”–church beyond the walls, church out in the fields, church on the edge, church out in the “emptiness.”
“The original, 4th-century monastery containing the church, was outside Constantinople’s city walls. Literally translated, the church’s full name was the Church of the Holy Saviour in the Country (Greek ἡ Ἐκκλησία τοῦ Ἁγίου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῇ Χώρᾳ, hē Ekklēsia tou Hagiou Sōtēros en tēi Chōrāi). It is therefore sometimes incorrectly referred to as “Saint Saviour”. However, “The Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Fields” would be a more natural rendering of the name in English. The last part of the Greek name, Chora, referring to its location originally outside of the walls, became the shortened name of the church. The name must have carried symbolic meaning, as the mosaics in the narthex describe Christ as the Land of the Living (ἡ Χώρα τῶν ζώντων, hē Chōra tōn zōntōn) and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the Container of the Uncontainable (ἡ Χώρα τοῦ Ἀχωρήτου, hē Chōra tou Achōrētou).”
Totally plagiarised from Wikipedia.
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