Chora Church & Kariye Mosque (Kariye Camii)

Located outside the original 4th-century walls of Constantine in the historic Edirnekapı district, the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora (meaning 'in the Country') was originally founded as a suburban monastic complex. While the earliest structures date back to the 6th century, the existing architectural jewel owes its global fame to Theodore Metochites, a Byzantine statesman and humanist who extensively remodeled and decorated the interior between 1315 and 1321 during the Palaeologan Renaissance. The interior contains what art historians universally consider the finest surviving narrative mosaics and frescoes in the Byzantine world. Luminous golden tesserae depict sequential cycles of the Life of the Virgin Mary and the Miracles of Christ with expressive emotional naturalism. In the burial chapel (Parakklesion), the monumental fresco of the Anastasis—portraying Christ trampling the gates of Hades while pulling Adam and Eve from their tombs—is recognized as one of mankind's greatest religious frescoes.