Half Day Tour of Orthodox Religious Sites from Istanbul

Constantinople Half-Day Tour of the Orthodox Religious Sites will start in the morning you will be picked up from your accommodation and a drive to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate located in Fener.

On arrival in Fener, we will visit the main building – the church of St. George. One of the most important and ancient relics in the church is part of the pole to which Christ was bound to before being flogged and crucified by the Roman soldiers. In the main cathedral there are relics of three female saints; St. Theophano who was the wife of Emperor Leo the Wise and Saint Euphemia, the Great Martyr.

The third set of relics were from Saint Mary Salome. After we explore the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, we then go to the Church of St. Mary of the Mongols and we will continue our day by visiting the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae. See the Holy Virgin’s robe, Her omophorion (head cover) and part of Her belt that she brought from Palestine in 457 in the Vlaherna Church.

Then we will travel on to Kariye Museum (The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora) well-known for its rare examples of mosaic work whose thematic variety of rich detail is unmatched among Byzantine churches. The last emperor that prayed in this church before, the city was besieged by the Turks. The Chora Church was initially in the centre of the monastery of St. Michael, was probably built in the VI century.