The 12th-century church, originally part of a nunnery, served as the seat of Orthodox patriarchy from 1456 to 1568 and was then converted into a mosque, the Fethiye Cami, in 1568. The focus now is not on the main church, but the small side chapel that functions as a small museum for its restored mosaics. The mosaics are some of the best anywhere, with a Christ Pantocrator (as "ruler of all") in the dome, with the figures of various saints, angels, and Old Testament prophets on the wall. In this chapel, Mehmet the Conqueror would talk religion and politics with his hand-picked patriarch, Gennadius.
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