Turkey: 190-year-old Greek Church being converted into a museum

A 190-year-old Greek Orthodox church in central Turkey is preparing to reopen its doors, this time as a museum, following the completion of extensive restoration work.

The church of Saint Eustathios in Incesu, Kayseri, was built in 1836 and is one of the area’s most important historic structures. It will house the Incesu Municipal Museum, and local authorities also hope to include it in the wider Cappadocia tourist route.

The Greek inscriptions and frescoes The church’s architecture and decoration are especially interesting. It is a three-aisled, vaulted building in which frescoes, stone reliefs, sculpted decoration and Karamanlidika inscriptions have survived.

Karamanlidika is Turkish written in Greek characters. It is associated with the Orthodox communities of Asia Minor, who used Turkish as their everyday language while preserving their Orthodox Christian identity.

According to Anadolu, the restoration placed particular emphasis on preserving the building’s authentic features, including the frescoes, the stonework, the inscriptions, the reliefs, and the sculpted elements.

It served as a place of worship until the population exchange According to the Kayseri…