Church of St. Irene in Istanbul / Hagia Eirene or Aya Irini

Church of St. Irene (Hagia Eirene or Aya Irini) - a monument of history and architecture, one of the oldest churches of the period of Constantinople. Originally a wooden church dedicated to the "Holy world" was built here in 330 AD, and in 532 it was completely rebuilt after a fire. In the IIX century it was badly damaged by an earthquake, and again restored, and almost unchanged has reached our days. Unlike other temples, which after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans were converted into mosques, this temple never became a mosque.

Today, the Church of St. Irene is open to the public as a historical landmark, and it also hosts music concerts and festivals. But, frankly, as a tourist attraction, it will be of little interest to a wide range of tourists. Inside there are no details and artifacts, you can only see the general interior and architecture, about which without additional information from the tour guide or guide you still will not understand anything. And given the too high cost of visiting, we will not recommend to visit it without fail, it is enough to inspect it from the outside for free. But since the church is included in the free visit on the museum map of Istanbul, be sure to look into it after visiting the interior of the Topkapi Palace, on the territory of which it is located.

Since a visit to the church without an excursion escort will be completely uninteresting and uninformative, we do not recommend examining it yourself. To do this, you can order an author's group or individual tour in Russian on one of these proven sites:

• Excursions from the tour operator TezTour
• Excursions from Sputnik8
• Trips from Tripster