“Little Ayasofya”
Not so long ago few tourists to Sultanahmet ventured downhill along Küçük Ayasofya Caddesi to visit the wonderful Kücük Ayasofya Cami. Even fewer continued on into Kadırga, then a solidly residential part of the city with pretty, albeit crumbling houses grouped around a small central park. Now, though, all that has changed. As the demand for land for new hotels in Sultanahmet has pushed up prices there so hoteliers have started looking further afield and now there are almost as many hotels in Küçük Ayasofya as in Sultanahmet itself, a change which can only accelerate over the coming years.
To get to Küçük Ayasofya from Sultanahmet you could walk straight ahead from Utangaç Sokak and then bear right, then left downhill towards the Sea of Marmara. A better (and safer because of traffic) route is to walk straight through the pretty Arasta Bazaar and out the other side. This will bring you out beside the 16th-century İskender Paşa mosque complex. Facing it across the road are the ruins of the old Arasta Hamam that burnt down in 1912. Then you just keep walking straight downhill and turn right at the very bottom to find the mosque.
İskender Paşa (?- 1515), who is buried beside the school he set up, also founded the Mevlevihane in Galata
This route will take you past the Sarnıç and Eresin Crown Hotel, both of them standing on top of Byzantine structures.
After visiting the mosque you should walk behind it and out through the remains of the old Propontine Sea Walls that protected Constantinople from enemies approaching across the Sea of Marmara. There, across the coast road built on reclaimed land, you will see numerous ships anchored offshore as they wait for permission to progress along the Bosphorus towards the Black Sea.
Küçük Ayasofya
Küçük Ayasofya (Little Ayasofya) started life as the Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus, commissioned by the Emperor Justinian in 527, five years before work began on the much larger and more famous Hagia Sophia.
Its rather plain exterior gives no hint at the beauty of the interior where a two-storey colonnade runs round an octagonal hall beneath an exquisite dome. The columns still retain their beautifully carved Byzantine capitals some of them still showing off the initials of Justinian and his wife, Theodora. Deeply carved inscriptions also run round the colonnade.
Unusually, there is a well with a pump right inside the body of the church. In a far corner a section of glass floor reveals that piped water once ran right under the church-mosque.
In the 16th century the church was converted into a mosque and acquired not just a minaret but also a medrese with student cells opening off a courtyard. Today these serve as craft workshops while the portico houses a delightfully peaceful small cafe, and ducks and rabbits roam the lawn. The man responsible for the medrese, Hüseyin Ağa, a Chief of the White Eunuchs at Topkapı Palace, is buried in a tomb beside the mosque.
Recently the mosque was comprehensively restored. Opinions vary as to the end result.
Sergius and Bacchus were Roman soldiers who had been martyred for espousing Christianity. They are said to have appeared to the Emperor Anastasius in a dream, pleading on behalf of Justinian who faced execution for plotting against him, hence his enthusiasm for building a church in their honour as soon as he succeeded to the throne.
Finally, at the point where Sultanahmet, Kadırga and Küçük Ayasofya come together in the back streets, the Sultanahmet Meslek ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi (technical high school) stands over the site of a kılıçhane or sword-making factory dating back to the mid 15th century when Gedik Ahmed Paşa was grand vizier to Sultan Mehmed II. In the reign of Sultan Ahmed I it was converted to manufacture uniforms for the Janissaries and then became a hospital under Ahmed III. In 1868 grand vizier Midhad Paşa had it turned into an industrial school. Parts of this were later demolished but traces of this illustrious past survive in the school which was undergoing restoration in 2024.
Eating
Tamara Restaurant A bit too popular with tour groups, the huge Tamara Restaurant, just a short walk downhill from the Arasta Bazaar, nonetheless dishes up excellent light lunches and even better breakfasts in a sequence of rooms that culminate in a roof terrace with great views. Küçük Ayasofya Caddesi No 14, Tel: 0212-518 4666
Sleeping
Deniz Konak. Tel: 0212-518 9595
Eresin Crown Hotel. Tel: 0212-638 4428
Sarnıç Hotel. Tel: 0212-518 2323
Sultan’s Inn. Tel: 0212-638 2562
Transport info
Most people will find it easiest to walk down from Sultanahmet/Cankurtaran although some buses run from Eminönü along the coast road bypassing the church-mosque.
Nearby areas
