At the suggestion of our rug dealer, we went to the Chora museum. his goal was to get us to make a decision on the rug, but since he had his driver take us, we got to go to this amazing place that we might not have made it to otherwise. It was on my list, but it was a longish taxi ride away and with so much to see just by walking... I am so glad we went though!
I love mosaics and this museum is an old church covered in spectacular mosaics
It is amazing how in the grand scale of a church, chunks of rocks give better detail than fresco paintings
my pictures are not great, because you had to pay a huge fee to use flash and even then it wouldn't really turn out. I practiced a lot of holding my breath and balance.
lots of biblical scenes and saints
In many places the mosaics had fallen. I really liked the restoration job that gave you a sense of how these things were put together. Her is the brick of the building itself. You can see the layers of plater on top
Not much left of this one
Another part of the church was covered in frescos. Pretty faded, but still interesting
A lot of damage in this section as well
Some of the mosaics had damage because the tiles around the figures were gold.
This gives you an idea of the scale
Seriously lifelike, no?
This guy donated a lot of money to the church. Keys to the city and all
We spent hours here and could easily have spent days. It was so amazing to see the artistry and how well it holds up even over a thousand years
Close up of a mosaic that is partially falling apart
In some areas, the stones were all gone but someone went through and colored in the patten left on the plaster so you could see the outline of the original. Cant decide if I liked that or if it was too crude
The Chora museum was hands down one of my favorite things to see in Istanbul. Cant believe we almost didn't go!
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