Trabzon Santa Maria Church

The church, built by missionaries in Trabzon dating back to the 14th century, is one of the faces of tolerance of the city. Anatolian lands have hosted countless religions and cultures in its thousands of years of history. The history of the Church of Santa Maria, built as one of the tolerance faces of the city dominated by Christianity during the Trabzon Empire, extends to the empire... The Church of Santa Maria, a product of missionary activities for the Christian religion, was first built in 1689. When the church, which was one of the places of worship of Christians for about 200 years, became ruinous over time, Sultan Abdulmecit, the Ottoman Sultan of the time, seized the situation and rebuilt the house of worship. The church, which was built between 1869 and 1874, serves as a structure where Christians who come to Trabzon can worship comfortably. As the name of the Church of Santa Maria suggests, it has a name attributed to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. It is rebuilt by the Muslim ruler of the time to allow all Christians to worship as a symbol of tolerance and still used in city today. The Church of Santa Maria, which is the only indicator of Anatolia and the Muslim Ottoman's respect for all other types of faith and ideology in the city, is among the most visited structures in Trabzon.