Saint Irene 🇹🇷

Hagia Irene, or Hagia Eirene, sometimes known as Saint Irene, is an Eastern Orthodox church located in the outer courtyard of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Before Hagia Sophia, there was Hagia Irene, the main cathedral of Constantinople. Built by Constantine I in the 4th century as one of the oldest Christian churches on top of an ancient pagan temple, Hagia Irene was never converted into a mosque when the Ottomans conquered the city in the 15th century. Hagia Irene suffered damage from social upheavals, fires, and earthquakes in the distant past. It has been rebuilt several times and is a testament to what Constantinople used to be. The Museum of Turkish History began here. After Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered the city and made the old Acropolis his throne, Hagia Irene was used as an arsenal within the walls of the Topkapi Palace courtyard. In the 19th century, it became the Imperial Museum, the first official institution dedicated to antiquities found in the ancient ruins surrounding the Ottoman Empire. This unique collection forms the centerpiece of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. It was later re-established in a neoclassical building in the gardens of Topkapi Palace.