Sunday 21 December 2014

SINASOS CHURCH, TURKEY

Mustafapaşa is a town in Nevşehir Province, Cappadocia, Turkey. The population of Mustafapaşa was 1550 as of 2011. The former name of Mustafapaşa during the Ottoman Empire era was Sinasos. It had a mixed population. Greeks and Karamanlides (Turkish speaking Christians), which constituted the majority of the population (≈3,000), and Muslim Turks who constituted the rest (≈500).

Although situated far from the seas Sinasiotes (Greeks from Sinasos) who temporarily migrated to İstanbul, were known to be the traders of seafood and especially caviar. The small town had many splendid, opulent mansions due to the wealth derived from the İstanbul trade.

In 1924, however, as a result of the population exchange agreement between Greece and Turkey, Greeks and Karamanlides left the town for Nea Sinasos a town in the northern part of the island of Euboea in Greece. They were replaced by Bulgarian Muslims and Turks from Kastoria, a town in northern Greece. During the exchange years the town lost its former prosperity.

In its heyday, Sinasos had nearly 30 churches in the town and 30 in its vicinity. One of the two public churches, the one carved in rock and dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel was destroyed in the beginning of the 20th century without any evidence suggesting its former existence. The second public church “Church of Constantine and Helena” in the town centre has been preserved and I ams haring with you some photos we took when we visited in June 2007.

The church is structurally sound, but its decorative features, frescoes, religious images and Christian carvings have been removed, as has the large iconostasis and icons that graced the holy of holies. The municipality of Mustafapaşa has started the restoration of the church and to this end many Greeks of Cappadocian origin are assisting in this project.

This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.













1 comment:

  1. Place looks a little empty now and a shadow of it's former self

    ReplyDelete

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