Hagia Irene Church and Museum

The first Byzantine Monument Hagia Irene Church and Museum (St. Irene)
Constantine I, who gave his name to Constantinople, made monotheistic religions compulsory in Constantinople, where before paganism had been widespread until Byzantine rule. He ordered the construction of the first church of Constantinople and named it after Saint Irene.

Byzantine Emperor Constantine I, who rebuilt the city of Gonstantinople and who gave it its name, gave the order to build the Hagia Irene Church on the ruins of Roman temples from the 330s.

This name, which means "Holy Peace," was also inspired by a saint, Irene, who lived at the time of the church's construction.

St. Irene, who devoted herself to the spread of Christianity, is said to have endured many inhuman atrocraes at the hands of pagans threw her into a well full of snakes, when they attemped to stone her to death, and when she was tied up and dragged by horses.

When she survived these attempts on her life many pagans accepted Christianity.
Following these miraculous events, Emperor Costantine I named the first Christian temple he built the Church Hagia Irene.

After the Ottomans conquered the city of Constantinople, they built Topkapi Palace in same area where the Church of Hagia Irene was located.

Following the completion of Topkapi, the church remained in the courtyard of the palace and was used as an inner armory where weapons were maintained and repaired.

The Church of Hagia Irene, which was converted into the first museum of the Ottoman Empire (Muze-i Humayun) in 1869, is the only example of a Byzantine church in the city retaining its original atrium, i.e. having a courtyard surrounded by porticos just like the ancient Roman temples. The epigraph and stairs in the main gate were added by the Ottomans in 1726.