After Santa Sofia, now it’s the turn of another jewel of Byzantine architecture: in the plans of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also San Salvatore in Chora it is destined to become a mosque in the coming weeks.
The Turkish media have confirmed that in the past few hours the signing of the presidential decree that transforms the Chora Museum, Museum of Chora in Turkish, in an Islamic place of worship. The decree in question, among other things, provided for the assignment of the building to the Religious, the body that manages religious affairs in Turkey and that since last July has taken over the former museum of Santa Sofia.
San Salvatore in Chora is one of the most beautiful and historical examples of architecture Byzantine. Its name suggests very ancient origins: for “cry“In fact, in Greek” countryside “is meant, the building was built outside the first walls of Constantinople, when the city had not yet gone beyond certain boundaries. Only with the construction of the Theodesian walls, which took place between 413 and 414, the Church was fully integrated into the urban fabric, while retaining the name Chora.
With the fall of Constantinople in the hands of the Ottomans, the basilica suffered the same fate as Hagia Sophia with the transformation into mosque. The mosaics, many of which are still visible today, were covered with lime but not destroyed. For several centuries San Salvatore in Chora functioned as a place of Islamic worship, its conversion into a museum is more recent than in Santa Sofia and dates back to 1958.
The restoration of the mosaics has allowed millions of tourists to admire some of the most significant examples of Byzantine art. But the transformation into a museum represented above all another symbol of the secular character of the Republic of Turkey. The fact that the main buildings of Istanbul, once of Christian worship, were museums, proved the willingness of the various governments to avoid exploitation of a religious nature.
Until today, in fact. On July 24, Hagia Sophia, the symbol of the Turkish metropolis, officially returned to being a mosque with President Erdogan present on the day of the first prayer after 86 years. Now the same fate falls to San Salvatore in Chora: here we will return to pray by September.
Inside the Hagia Sophia the mosaics have been covered with cloths that, local authorities promise, at the end of the works can be opened after prayers to allow tourists to admire them. The same solution could be adopted for San Salvatore, but the fact remains that another museum symbol of the secularity of the Turkish Republic will now return to be considered a real place of worship.
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