Chora Church (Kariye Mosque) Istanbul 2026 — Tickets, Mosaics & Visitor Guide

What Chora Church (Kariye Mosque) is

Chora Church (Kariye Mosque) is the surviving church of a Byzantine monastery in Edirnekapı, Fatih, Istanbul. It is a compact building: a domed prayer hall, two entrance halls called narthexes, and a long side chapel. What makes it one of the key sights of Istanbul is the decoration. Between about 1316 and 1321 the statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites rebuilt the church and covered it with mosaics and frescoes (source). Columbia University describes the result as an "icon" of Late Byzantine art (source).

You will meet three names for the same place. Chora Church is the Byzantine name. Kariye Museum, or Chora Museum, is what it was called for most of the 20th century. Kariye Mosque (Kariye Camii) is the current official name. This guide uses both names together.

Visiting at a glance

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Full details sit on the opening hours and tickets pages.

How a visit works since the 2024 reopening

The building was reconverted from a museum to a mosque by presidential decree in August 2020. It then closed for restoration and reopened on 6 May 2024 (source). Since then it works in two modes at once: a mosque for worshippers and a ticketed monument for visitors.

Here is what that means for you.

• You enter from the north side. Visitors come into the grounds from Kariye Türbesi Sokak and pass a security check before the building (source).
• Foreign visitors need a ticket. The gate price is €20. Entry for Turkish citizens is free, and for worshippers it is free. Museum passes are not accepted (source).
• Prayer comes first. Tourist entry stops about 15–30 minutes before each prayer time and resumes after prayers. Fridays: worship only, no tourist visits.
• The prayer hall mosaics are covered. The mosaics in the central hall, the naos, are screened because the space is used for worship (source). The narthex mosaics and the chapel frescoes are what you come for, and they are on the visitor route.
• Mosque dress rules apply. Shoulders and legs covered; headscarf for women inside the prayer hall.

What you see inside

The decoration reads like a book, room by room. The scene list below follows Columbia University's survey of the iconography (source). For a work-by-work walk-through, use our mosaics and frescoes guide.

Outer narthex: the early life and ministry of Christ

The first hall you step into carries the Infancy of Christ in its lunettes, the half-round wall fields under the vaults. The story runs from the Nativity to the Flight into Egypt. Above you, the vaults show the Ministry of Christ: miracles and teaching scenes. Look for Christ Pantokrator over the door that leads further in, and for the Virgin with the Child above the main entrance.

Inner narthex: the life of the Virgin

The second hall is the richest. Three bays tell the life of the Virgin, from the story of her parents Joachim and Anne to her birth, her presentation in the Temple and her betrothal to Joseph. Two domes hold Christ and the Virgin surrounded by rows of ancestors.

Two panels deserve extra time. Above the door to the prayer hall, Theodore Metochites kneels before the enthroned Christ and offers him a model of the church. It is a donor portrait, and it tells you who paid for everything around you. To the right of the door is the Deesis, a large panel of Christ and the Virgin with two earlier benefactors of the monastery.

Parekklesion: the frescoed chapel

The long chapel on the south side is called the parekklesion. It is painted, not set in mosaic. In the apse is the Anastasis, the image most people know from Chora: Christ descends into the underworld and pulls Adam and Eve from their tombs (source). The vault in front of it holds the Last Judgment. Along the walls, Old Testament scenes such as Jacob's Ladder and Moses at the Burning Bush point forward to the Virgin.

The naos

The central hall holds three mosaic panels: the Koimesis, or Dormition of the Virgin, above the western door, and framed images of Christ and the Virgin beside the sanctuary. This is the prayer area today, so expect these to be covered.

Practical tips

• Go early. Arrive close to the start of tourist hours for the quietest rooms and soft light in the narthexes. See opening hours for how prayer pauses shift through the year.
• Check the prayer schedule on the day. A pause can cost you waiting time at the gate if you arrive just before one.
• Do not plan a tourist visit on Friday.
• Dress before you leave your hotel. Shoulders and legs covered; headscarf for women inside the prayer hall.
• Travel light. Luggage, strollers, umbrellas and outside food or drink are not allowed in, and flash photography is prohibited (source).
• Look up, then look closer. Most scenes sit in vaults and domes. Give your eyes a minute in each bay before you move on.
• Consider a guide. The cycles follow a strict order that is easy to miss on your own. A guided tour or an audio guide turns separate pictures into a story.

A short history

The monastery is old. It was probably founded by the sixth century, and remains of sixth- and ninth-century phases survive in the foundations (source). The name Chora means land or countryside, a reminder that the first monastery stood outside the city walls of Constantinople (source).

The church was rebuilt in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, and the upper structure of the naos dates from that time. It seems to have suffered during the Latin occupation of the city between 1204 and 1261. Then came Theodore Metochites. Between about 1316 and 1321 he rebuilt the dome, added the two narthexes, a two-storey annex on the north side and the parekklesion on the south, and commissioned the decoration (source).

In 1511 Atik Ali Pasha converted the church into a mosque. It became a museum in 1945 and opened to the public in 1958 (source). In between, the Byzantine Institute of America under Thomas Whittemore began a major restoration campaign in the late 1940s. Paul Underwood and the Dumbarton Oaks Field Committee carried it on into the late 1950s (source). Dumbarton Oaks still holds film and notebooks from that work, including footage of the outer narthex mosaics being cleaned (source).

The full timeline, from monastery to mosque to museum and back, is on the history page.

How to get there

Chora Church (Kariye Mosque) stands in Edirnekapı, Fatih, Istanbul, in the north-west corner of the old city. The address is on Kariye Camii Sokak (source). It is not within walking distance of Sultanahmet for most people, so plan the journey. You can come by public transport, by taxi or with a pre-booked transfer. Step-by-step routes from the main visitor districts are on how to get there.

Once you are in the neighbourhood, there is more to see on foot. Our nearby sights page covers the land walls and the other Byzantine and Ottoman monuments of the district. If you are weighing this visit against the city's largest Byzantine monument, read Chora Church vs Hagia Sophia.

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