Church of Saint Mary of the Mongols

A brief history

This is the only surviving Byzantine church in Constantinople that has never stopped being a Greek Orthodox house of worship. Every other one was converted, ruined or turned to another use; Hagia Irene was spared conversion too, but served as an arsenal and is now a museum and concert hall. In Turkish the church is called Kanlı Kilise, the Bloody Church, a name from the fighting around it at the fall of the city in 1453.

Saints & traditions

Its Greek name is Theotokos Panagiotissa. The Mongols in the popular name come from the woman who refounded it: a Byzantine princess sent to marry a Mongol ruler, who returned to Constantinople a widow and became a nun.