0
Skip to content

El Nazar Kilisesi


El Nazar Kilisesi

Geosite  17 Elnazar church

It is located in the Zemi valley, east of Göreme Town in Nevşehir Province, west of Göreme Open Air Museum. El Nazar Church is one of Cappadocia’s most iconic cave churches. Carved inside Kavak ignimbrite. The church is in a single fairy chimney. This church dates to the late 900’s, a period of Byzantine.  Considering that the church was built a thousand years ago, there has been no significant change in the condition, location and shape of the fairy chimney in the last thousand years.

It is a three-apse church with a central dome and free mortar plan. In the painting decorations of the church, the architectural art of the church with a free cross plan was adhered to, and the decoration of the naos was separated from the usual archaic style by placing the ascension scene on the central dome. The majority of the depicted scenes are devoted to important holidays (https://turkishmuseums.com/museum/detail/2204-nevsehir-el-nazar-church/2204/4).

This church dates to the late 900’s, a period of Byzantine political expansion and cultural renaissance. El Nazar is a fairly typical Cappadocian cave church in many regards¾a small, frescoed, cross-shaped church carved into a fairy chimney (https://www.cappadociahistory.com/post/el-nazar-church).