The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
The Church of Hagia Irene, was the cathedral church of the Patriarchate before Hagia Sophia was completed in 360
Hagia Sophia was the patriarchal cathedral until 1453
The Hagia Sophia church in Nicaea
Patriarch Gennadios with Sultan Mehmed II
Constantinople
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Constantinople became the capital of the Roman Empire during the reign of Constantine the Great in 330. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Following the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish capital then moved to Ankara. Officially renamed Istanbul in 1930, the city is today the largest city in Europe, straddling the Bosporus strait and lying in both Europe and Asia, and the financial centre of Turkey.
Aerial view of Byzantine Constantinople and the Propontis (Sea of Marmara)
Hagia Sophia built in AD 537, during the reign of Justinian.
The Column of Constantine, built by Constantine I in 330 to commemorate the establishment of Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire
This huge keystone found in Çemberlitaş, Fatih, might have belonged to a triumphal arch at the Forum of Constantine built by Constantine I.