Category
Religious
26 places
- Hagia SophiaJustinian's 6th-century basilica, later an Ottoman mosque and museum — for a thousand years the largest cathedral in the world.UNESCOAncient Site
- Blue MosqueSultan Ahmed I's six-minaret mosque, named for the İznik tiles that line its interior.UNESCOMosque
- Westminster AbbeyThe church where English and British monarchs are crowned and many are buried, rebuilt in Gothic form from the 1240s.UNESCOChurch
- St Paul's CathedralChristopher Wren's domed cathedral, built after the Great Fire and climbable to galleries under and above the dome.Church
- Göreme Open Air MuseumA monastic valley of rock-cut churches, their Byzantine frescoes preserved by the dark and the dry air.UNESCOOpen Air Museum
- Süleymaniye MosqueSinan's imperial mosque on the third hill — the architect considered it his journeyman work, not his masterpiece.UNESCOMosque
- Chora ChurchByzantium's finest surviving mosaics and frescoes, in a modest church far from the tourist spine.UNESCOChurch
- Eyüp Sultan MosqueBuilt over the tomb of the Prophet's standard-bearer — the most venerated Islamic site in the city.Mosque
- Ortaköy MosqueA small Baroque mosque at the water's edge, framed by the first Bosphorus bridge behind it.Mosque
- Temple of ArtemisOne of the Seven Wonders, now a single reassembled column in a field of foundations.UNESCOAncient Site
- Trinity ChurchAn Episcopal parish at the head of Wall Street since 1698; its churchyard is older than the finance around it.Church
- House of the Virgin MaryA small stone chapel on Bülbül Mountain, a pilgrimage site for Christians and Muslims alike.Religious
- Fatih MosqueThe conqueror's own mosque complex, raised on the site of the Church of the Holy Apostles.Mosque
- Zelve Open Air MuseumThree valleys of cave dwellings inhabited until 1952, when the rock became too unstable.UNESCOOpen Air Museum
- Rüstem Pasha MosqueRaised above a row of shops and lined wall-to-wall with the best İznik tile in the city.Mosque
- New MosqueSixty-six years between foundation and completion, anchoring the Eminönü waterfront.Mosque
- Little Hagia SophiaSaints Sergius and Bacchus — the dome experiment that preceded Hagia Sophia by a few years.Church
- Hacı Bayram MosqueThe city's principal pilgrimage mosque, built against the wall of the Roman temple.Mosque
- Ecumenical Patriarchate of ConstantinopleThe senior see of the Orthodox world, behind a gate welded shut since 1821.Church
- Şehzade MosqueSinan's memorial to the prince Mehmed — the work he called his apprentice piece.Mosque
- Kocatepe MosqueA classical Ottoman plan built in the 1980s, and the largest mosque in the capital.Mosque
- ÇavuşinAn abandoned cliff village below the Church of St. John the Baptist, one of the oldest in the region.Ancient Site
- Yivli Minare MosqueA fluted brick minaret from the Seljuk period, rising over the old town.Mosque
- Zeyrek MosqueThe Pantokrator monastery, second only to Hagia Sophia among the city's surviving Byzantine churches.UNESCOChurch
- Bulgarian St. Stephen ChurchCast in iron in Vienna, shipped down the Danube and bolted together on the Golden Horn.Church
- Church of St. Anthony of PaduaThe largest Catholic church in the city, set back from İstiklal behind a brick courtyard.Church