History of the church
In the most central spot of the so-called European part of Istanbul, the place we all came to know as Peran, at Stavrodromi, the Isodia of Theotokos Church and the surrounding building complex - offices, clergy houses, halls, meeting places - covers an entire building block.
On the external side of the yard, bordering the walls of the church buildings, shops have been built. During the day a buzzing crowd, shop owners, employees and shoppers, fills the place. The large iron yard gates of the church building complex, that remain open during daytime to facilitate the movements of people, are shut in the evening.
When Galata and the other districts at the foot of the hill could no longer serve the thousands of Christians that flocked in Istanbul from every corner of the country, the natural consequence was an upwards expansion and the gradual development of new districts.
The church of this crowded and rich parish was built in 1804, after the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787. The foundation stone was set by a prince, Dimitrios Mourouzis, and the first structure, a humble chapel, was built in a single night with the help of parishioners, men and women.
It is said that Mourouzis came up with a scheme to get the building permit, since no church had been built before on that site. He paid a couple of Turks to start fighting. When they arrested them and took them to the police station (“karakol”) and when asked where they were fighting they answered, as agreed, “where the old church of the Rums was”. The same happened later with others and these statements guaranteed the building permit of the Sultan.
The church in its present form was completed in 1893.
It is a huge, imposing five-aisled basilica, with a marvellous baroque templon and iconography thematically borrowed from the Paleologian Hora Church.
The splendour and grandeur of this first 19th century church, which is associated to the Zografeion Lyceum, still impresses modern visitors, especially on the 21st of November each year - the feast day of the church - when the cream of civil society attend the Patriarchal liturgy in the church, featuring the amazing wood-carvings, the scarlet velvet and the silver vigil lamps of outstanding craftsmanship, offering a glimpse of what the Greek-Rum Community of Istanbul represents.
