Church of St. Mary of the Mongols

Kanli Kilise, the Bloody Church, is the Greek Orthodox Church of the Theotokos Pammakaristos Mouchliotissa in Istanbul's Fener district. Built around 1281 for Maria, an illegitimate daughter of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, it is the only Byzantine church in the city that has remained in continuous Christian use since the 1453 Ottoman conquest, without ever being converted into a mosque. The popular Turkish name refers to the bloody street fighting around the church during the fall of Constantinople. Inside it preserves a miraculous icon of the Virgin and a mosaic fragment of Mary Mouchliotissa. The church sits tucked away in a side street above the Golden Horn and is still cared for by a small Rum Orthodox congregation.