A Pilgrimage Site In Lycia: Saint Nicholas Church And Monastery In Myra, lecture by Sema Doǧan (Hacettepe University), Bilkent University, February 27, 2020, 2:30 pm

Myra, the city housing the Church of Saint Nicholas, became a metropolis in Lycia after Theodosius II (408-450) separated the provinces Lycia and Lycaonia in the mid-5th century. According to John Malalas (491-578), the earliest representative of the Byzantine chronicle, a vast number of structures were built in Myra after it had been destroyed by a massive earthquake in 529 AD. Several quarters of the city, as well as the squares and poorly preserved religious structures, indicate that a large and active Christian population lived here in the 6th century. Myra remained as the metropolis of Lycia from the 5th century until the end of the 14th century, as Saint Nicholas, the famous saint of the Orthodox Christians, spent his life as a bishop in this city until he passed away and was buried in his tomb here. The church built upon the tomb of Saint Nicholas was an important site of pilgrimage from the Early Byzantine period through the Middle Ages for pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. In the medieval times, those seeking healing would make offerings to Saint Nicholas in his church. During the excavation campaigns carried out from 1989 until today, new outbuildings were unearthed around of the Church. The architectural finds uncovered during the excavations have revealed that the church is situated inside a large monastery. In this presentation, the historical sources of the St. Nicholas Church and Monastery in Myra will be introduced with new archaeological data.

Sema Doğan is Faculty Member in the Department of Art History at Hacettepe  University. She is the head of the Excavation of the St. Nicholas Church in Demre – Antalya (ancient Myra). She was the head of the surveys of Byzantine era in the Lycia and Pamphylia regions between 1998-2008 years within the collaborations of Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Hacettepe University.

The lecture is part of the Byzantine Seminar Series “Byzantium at Ankara,” an event organized and hosted in collaboration by Bilkent and Hacettepe University which will be held over the entire 2019/2020 academic year.