churches, mosques, and palaces -- part two

Written by Barbara Anderson
Our Russian friend Renad was intent on showing us around. The day kept changing as his schedule became crowded with details of his imminent return to Kazan. Bayram, the holiday following the end of Ramadan, had emptied out the university. Students had left for home, much as they do for Thanksgiving. Had we known about the holiday, we might have tried to schedule a trip oursevles although everyone told us getting reservations would have been difficult. Even the schedules at museums were affected. The campus restaurant closed, and we found ourselves eating at the student fast food place instead. Renad tried to convince Larry that no students would be in his class, so any day of the week would be fine for an excursion. Luckily, he checked before cancelling classes that ended up being fully attended. In any case, Tuesday was selected as the day when we would meet Renad at the entrance to the Metrobus stop. I'm being specific because we never met there. His directions may have worked except for the fact our bus never went to the Metro bus entrance where he was waiting. And our attempt to find Metrobus resulted in a long walk along the side of a freeway to an overpass where some Metrobuses were picking up passengers. After over a n hour wait, we decided to follow plan B: meet Renad at Kadikoy where all the buses (but not the Metrobuses --I know this is confusing) on the Asian side converge. Even there we saw no sign of Renad and were about to give up when he came rushing toward us. We all took a taxi to the Metrobus station and 2 hours late set off for our excursion. I mention all the problems because they were indicative of what would transpire for the next hour...confusion about where a place was, taxi rides to nowhere....The problem was the first stop on his agenda was a very new attraction, Panorama 1453; no one seemed to understand where we wanted to go or had any idea where it was...Knowing Chora Church was also on the agenda, I was feeling impatient and would have gladly ended the apparent wild goose chase for more time at the place I really wanted to see.
But as we have learned, everything just requires time and a few false starts. Maybe one of the lasting benefits of this trip will be my learning to be more patient, to"chill" as Larry always suggests; somehow I suspect that willingness to be more patient will be a temporary phenomenon. I'll return to Colorado and the stress to be somewhere at a given time will erase any of the "chill" lessons I'm trying to absorb here. We finally found Panorama 1453, a spot the typical western tourist probably will not visit at it is a recreation of the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, not the fall...Immediately, we noticed the visitors were of a different background. I may have been the only woman with an uncovered head, and the women totally covered in black were as numerous as those just modestly dressed in floor length garb and scarves. Many of the men were also in religious attire; I had never realized a kind of harem pant was seemingly essential to the wardrobe of religous men. We were viewing history from the other side as we looked at the 360 degree mural depicting the glorious triumph of Mehmet the Conqueror. The martial music, the steady beat of the military drums to me were a terrifying sign of impending doom; to everyone else the music was a triumphant hymn to the founding of their country. Maybe western tourists should include Panorama 1453 on their agenda to force them to look at a pivotal moment in world history in a new way. I wish we had opted to use the audio recorders so all the displays with their Turkish inscriptions would have had some meaning for us. Significantly, only at Panorama 1453 was there no English or other foreign language signage. The mural itself was painted by an Italian artist , but I know very few details because of the language barrier.
The earlier frustrations ended at that point. A quick ride to a neighborhood took us to the vicinity of Chora Church. Tour books recommend tourists visist the church, now a museum after sharing a similar conversion to mosque fate as Aya Sofya and most churches in Turkey, but the guide books all say it is far from the rest of the Old Town sights and must be reached by taxi (or be thankful if your tour bus has decided to included it on its list). Tucked in a neighborhood of old wooden houses, many brightly painted in shades of pink, blue, and green, it is near the Old City Wall. We would spend the rest of our day walking along the wall in increasingly poor neighborhoods, in areas that may not be safe for ousiders after nightfall. The walk would be a fascinating look at what remained of the fortification we had seen in its 15th century glory just as it was breached by invaders, as we stopped to have tea along the wall with an old Turkish man with one clouded eye, who expressed his affection for both President Obama and President Bush...and looked at old mosques, cemeteries, and houses barely standing, yet clearly still occupied...all in the shadow of that long old wall. I wish I'd had a guidebook with me since I really don't know exactly what we were seeing. Rick Steves gave a thorough description of the church, but we didn't know exactly where we were and hence were not reading the appropriate sections as we wandered, assuming any of the narrow streets we wandered up and down was even mentioned. I was feeling so tired, so unable to climb just one more set of steps up the wall, and wondered at my level of exhaustion. By the time we returned to our room, it was clear I was sick, running a fever, and needing a day just to sleep my way to recuperation. At the time I wondered if I had a touch of the flu, maybe even swine flu, but the achey feeling and the fever luckily passed quickly. But I digress from the important part of the day: the church...
Kariye Muzesi (Kariye Museum or Chora Church) is the site of one of the most significant collections of Byzantine mosaics in the world. Visit Ravenna to see early mosaics; visit Chora to see mosaics suggesting the realism, dimension, and artistry of the early Renaissance...and that's if you are interested in art history. Visit Chora as a Christian to see the stories of the New Testament come to life on every available surface, to "read'' the gospels in art...I was clutching my Rick Steves Istanbul and reading along; members of a tour group kept commenting on the book and explaining they were on a Rick Steves tour...But I soon decided to put the book away and "read" on my own...my head tilted back to see every possible scene. Larry, the reluctant observer of the glories of Aya Sofya, had no difficulties here; the mosaics were so complete, the beauty so evident...The plaster that had covered the walls in the centuries of its mosque visage had probably protected the 14th century mosaics. They are in remarkable condition and only emerged from centuries of concealment in the 1940s. Of all the places we have visited in Istanbul, this is the place, this small church, where I could spend the most time. I read later that all subsequent icons owe their images to the Chora representations, that religious art around the world reflects the images on the Chora walls. And the art is not just the mosaics. In the paracclesion, the funeral chapel, frescoes depicting the Last Judgment become an appropriate echo of the function of the space. One memorable detail:Christ pulling Adam and Eve from their tombs, His head in a halo of what still appears to be actual gold...
So many frescoes linger in my mind: the miracle of turning water into wine, the depiction of the pregnant Mary sleeping with the Holy Child still embedded in her womb, the tottering first steps of the infant Mary,the depiction of Peter and Paul on either side of the entry...This is a place to inspire awe and reverence and appreciation, depending on what you are seeking. And because it is so out of the way, the number of tour buses seemed less. I could actually spend uninterrupted time just looking...Outside, the church/museum is rather nondescript; the glory is inside. And for people who can "do" a sight quickly, there is a tea shop with high prices, Renad reported, and a few souvenir stands. But nothing really spoils this spot. Maybe we were fortunate to be visiting it in the offseason, but the crowds just seem fewer than we have encountered in other Istanbul locations. Since I ended the day in bed with a fever, I should probably be less enthusiastic about this day. We had run out of time to visit the last site Renad had hoped to show us, and we headed back to Kadikoy on a ferry with a rush hour crowd...but it still was a most memorable day, one I would love to repeat...minus the walk along the freeway...