Hagia Irene

Hagia Irene is a Greek Eastern Orthodox church, one of the few churches in Istanbul that has not been converted into a mosque. The Hagia Irene today operates as a museum and concert hall. The church was dedicated to the peace of God, and is one of the three shrines which emperors devoted to God’s attributes, together with Hagia Sophia (Wisdom) and Hagia Dynamis. The building reputedly stands on the site of a pre-Christian temple. It ranks as the first church completed in Constantinople, before Hagia Sophia, during its transfiguration from a Greek trading colony to the eastern capital of the Roman Empire.