Church of the Holy Apostles

Welcome, student of history, to one of the most historically dense and fiercely contested pieces of real estate in the world. You are standing in the courtyard of the Fah-teeh Mosque, a magnificent Islamic complex. …

Let us stand near the main entrance and cast our minds back to the early fourth century. In the year three hundred and thirty AD, the very first Byzantine Emperor, Constantine the Great, dedicated the original Church of the Holy…

As we walk along the shaded colonnade, we must jump forward in time to the sixth century, to the reign of Justinian the First. Justinian is often referred to as the quintessential builder of Byzantine history, the Ozymandias of…

We now approach the darkest chapter in the history of this site, a trauma from which the Byzantine Empire never truly recovered. In the year twelve hundred and four, during the disastrous Fourth Crusade, Western Christian knights…

Following the horrific sack of twelve hundred and four, the Church of the Holy Apostles entered a long, agonizing period of decline. During the Latin Empire, when Western crusaders ruled the city, the building was totally…

In the year fourteen sixty-two, the final structural death knell tolled for the Church of the Holy Apostles. Under the direct tutelage of Sultan Mehmed the Second—who had claimed the title of Caesar of Rome upon his conquest—the…

Before we conclude, look closely at the magnificent domes rising above us. The structure you are admiring today is actually not the original mosque built by Mehmed the Conqueror in the fifteenth century. …

As we walk away from the courtyards of the Fah-teeh Mosque, let us take one final moment to reflect on the staggering historical weight of this single piece of geography. For a thousand years, it was the sacred vault of the…