Church of St. George

St. George's Cathedral in the Fener district of Istanbul has served since the sixteenth century as the principal church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the spiritual centre of Orthodox Christianity whose patriarch traditionally holds the honorary title of "first among equals" of Orthodox bishops. After the Ottoman conquest in 1453 turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque, the Patriarchate moved several times before settling in 1601 in this modest church inside the Greek Phanar quarter. Outwardly unremarkable behind the compound walls, the cathedral guards relics including a column to which Christ is said to have been bound for scourging, the patriarchal throne and the bodies of Saints Euphemia, Solomone and Theophano. Visitors who find the discreet entrance can experience Byzantine chant in a fully gilded interior during the liturgy.