Hagia Irene — Attraction in Fatih

This is a very niche church, even though it’s not located in an obscure area, being right in the first courtyard at the entrance of Topkapi Palace.

While the first courtyard is open to the public for free, the church itself is not. A 2019 review mentioned that a standalone ticket cost 36 lira, which customers found expensive. Shockingly, five years later the price has skyrocketed to 500 lira!!! However, most visitors come mainly to see the Topkapi Museum, and the church ticket is included in the museum package. So, if you don’t want to be ripped off, do not buy the standalone ticket.

Moreover, after several renovations, the church now lacks any display cases or exhibits—there’s just an empty hall, a few staircases, and some pigeons... No wonder many dissatisfied visitors claim there’s nothing worth seeing.

Since this Eastern Orthodox church is the oldest known church building in the city and one of the only Byzantine churches in Istanbul that has never been converted into a mosque, visiting it requires some historical knowledge or imagination. Tour groups that just skim the surface or those culturally uninformed such as ha2’s scheming bit*h cousin really have no reason...

Hagia Irene or Hagia Eirene sometimes known also as Saint Irene, is a Greek Eastern Orthodox church located in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The church was not converted into a mosque after the conquest of Istanbul. Few changes were made to the interior and exterior and it was used as the Cebehane (weapons depot). Two restored marble inscription tablets adorn the entry portico that was added by Sultan Ahmet III. One of these was restored in 1726 by Darü’l-Esliha and the weapons within arranged, so that the church had clearly been turned into a weapons museum. The other inscription, dated 1744 during the reign of Sultan Mahmud I, indicates it was turned into the weapons depot again after its restoration. In the 19th Century, the weapons depot was named the “Harbiye Ambarı” (war academy depot). In 1846, on the initiative of Tophane Müşiri (Artillery Commander in Chief) Fethi Ahmed Pasha, the contents were organized into two sections and the building officially named the Museum of Early Munitions and Artifacts. Later it was used again as a depot. In the years 1908-40 it served as the...

She’s in the backyard of Topkapi Palace like an ancient, stone-faced roommate who’s been around since the 4th century and just won’t move out, Hagia Irene (a.k.a. Saint Irene) is Istanbul’s original holy hotspot, older than Hagia Sophia.

Constructed during Constantine the Great’s reign, this church was built on the ashes of a pagan temple. Because what says “progress” more than plopping a new religion’s temple right on top of the old one like an architectural mic drop?

Unlike her famous sister Hagia Sophia, Hagia Irene never went through that phase where she became a mosque. She stayed a church until the Ottomans showed up and were like, Cool building, but it would make a better weapons depot. And so, for centuries, Irene stored cannons, swords, and all sorts of medieval mayhem.

The church has exactly one surviving fresco. A black cross up in the apse that survived the Iconoclasm, aka the 8th-century version of a social media purge, where religious images were canceled harder than a problematic YouTuber.

If you visit Topkapi Palace, pay this spot a visit. She’s been...