March 15, 2011
The Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos located in the district of Pera in Constantinople (Istanbul) and had suffered severely in November 2003 by a bomb placed at the British consulate and in the nearby HSBC Bank leaving behind 27 dead and 460 wounded, has been restored. It cost nearly € 1,000,000.
Since 2003 the church was closed. Restorations began in 2006. There are 93 churches in Constantinople, the largest being that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The second largest was this Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos.
The Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos was built by a firman of Selim III in June 1804 by architect Hajji Comnenus, who repaired the burnt Holy Sepulchre. In fact, according to tradition, this church was said to have been built in one night by the faithful.
This is a huge, imposing, five-aisled basilica with a baroque altar and illustrations with themes borrowed from the Palaiologan period of the Monastery of Chora.
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