St. Nicholas Church

The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church is located in the main square of Heybeliada, Istanbul, with all its redness. Although the exact date of construction of the first structure is not known, the stylized Ionic columns on its exterior indicate the Byzantine period. In line with the townspeople, where almost all men were sailors or fishermen, it was dedicated to St. Nicholas (Hagios Nikolaos), the patron saint of sailors. Today's church was built in 1857 by architect Hacı Stefanis Gaitanakis on the ruins of a Byzantine church. It was damaged in the 1894 earthquake and repaired with permission from Sultan Abdulhamid II.

The church, built on the East-West axis, has a cross-shaped plan with a dome covered by a high cylinder covering the center, four supporting buttresses, barrel vaults on its four arms, and a bell tower rising independently of the main structure. Behind the church altar is the tomb of Patriarch Samuel Hançeri. A separate structure in front of the narthex houses the sacred fountain of St. Paraskevi (Hagia Paraskevi).

The interior of the church is rich in decoration. Different geometric ceiling cassettes were used in the covering system of the naos to create movement in the interior. In addition to the Empire style seen in liturgical elements such as the iconostasion, ambon and despot throne, there are also baroque details in the decoration. The beautifully carved marble screen is decorated with gilded reliefs and icons of the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas. On the wall to the right of the apse, there is a silver-plated icon of St. Barbara from 1895 and an icon of St. Nicholas, also silver-plated.

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