Hagia Irene
— — the older sister, the quiet one.
Not only on a wall.
“One of the oldest churches in the city, standing where a Byzantine basilica stood before Justinian rebuilt it in the sixth century. Unlike its more famous neighbour down the hill, it was never converted to a mosque. The acoustics are why orchestras come now. The brick reads warm in the afternoon, and the dome carries a plain black cross where mosaics would once have hung.
Hagia Irene, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Hagia Irene sits in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace, a short walk from Hagia Sophia in the Fatih district of Istanbul. The current structure dates to the rebuild under Justinian I after the Nika revolt of 532, with substantial repairs after an earthquake in 740 under Constantine V. It is one of very few Byzantine churches in the city that was never converted into a mosque after 1453; instead the Ottomans used it as an arsenal and later as an imperial military museum.
The structure is a domed basilica in red brick and grey mortar, with a synthronon of six tiered seats still curving along the apse — one of the only surviving examples in situ. Above the apse, in the half-dome, an austere black cross sits on a gold ground, painted during the Iconoclast period of the eighth century in place of a figural mosaic. The narthex retains marble revetment from the Justinianic reconstruction.
Entry is through the first courtyard of Topkapı Palace, before the main palace ticket gate, and is governed by the Topkapı museum's hours. The interior is used as a concert venue for the Istanbul Music Festival each June, and the long reverberation under the dome is the reason ensembles ask for it. Outside concert season, access is limited and timed, so checking the day's schedule with the Topkapı ticket office before arriving is worth the minute.