🌎Cancer Survivor's Trip Around the World Day 56: What is the Chora Museum? A Space Preserving the 'Masterpiece of Byzantine Art'
Going to the Chora Museum
I took the metro, the tram, and then transferred to a city bus to get there.
You can ride them all using the same card.
What is the Chora Museum (formerly the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora)?
A space preserving the 'masterpiece of Byzantine art'
Although it is currently treated as a mosque again, its interior preserves the 'pinnacle of religious art' reached by the 14th-century Byzantine world.
It is said that if Hagia Sophia is the 'symbol of the empire,' then Chora is the 'space of prayer and narrative.'
What is 'Chora'?
The original name was 'Chora Monastery'.
'Chora' is a Greek word that means:
countryside
suburbs
outside the city walls
It indicates that this place was once a monastery located outside the walls of Constantinople.
Later, as the city expanded, it was incorporated within the city walls, but the name remained.
The foundation of the current building was established around the 11th century, and in the early 14th century, it underwent large-scale restoration by Theodore Metochites, a grand logothete of the late Byzantine Empire.
The most famous part of Chora is,
the frescoes in the side chapel (parekklesion).
Especially famous is,
the Anastasis.
The scene where Christ descends into the underworld
and pulls up Adam and Eve.
This is called the 'Anastasis' (Resurrection).
The energy of this painting is overwhelming.
Christ is not standing still.
His robes are fluttering violently,
he is crushing the gates of the underworld,
and he is firmly grasping Adam's arm.
The very 'movement of destroying death' is depicted.
It is not merely a religious explanation,
'What is salvation?'
'What is resurrection?'
It is attempting to convey these through visuals.
It is said that this dynamism had a major influence on later Western religious paintings.
It is said that this dynamism had a major influence on later Western religious paintings.
For tourists, the biggest feature of this museum is, above all, that you can listen to Japanese commentary for free using your smartphone.
Given this, I thought the price of 1100 Turkish Lira was not a bad level.