The Buckle Church is the largest one in the valley of Goreme and features a significant number of iconography. From the pictorial point of view, it is certainly the most important early Christian church in Cappadocia.
The consistency of the color is rather of lapis lazuli which was earlier believed to be brought from Afghanistan, but recently there was found a small old mine of this beautiful stone as well near Avanos town.
The walls and vaults show scenes from the New Testament, commencing with the Annunciation. The life of Christ is depicted in chronologically ordered sequences, terminating with the Ascension. The church also displays a great number of portraits of saints. The paintings of the New Church, from the 10th century, are stronger and more powerful, and have been carefully restored.
The church is only 400 m. down the way to the big car park of Goreme Open Air Museum and can be visited with the same ticket purchased for the museum.
The Old and the New Church
The Buckle Church (Tokalı Kilise) is in fact four churches in one. The Old Church, carved in the early 10th century, has a single nave and a cycle of the life of Christ painted like a picture book in bands along its barrel vault. A few decades later a much larger New Church was cut behind it, and the Old Church became its entrance hall. The New Church, with its deep blue background, gilded details and elegant figures, is one of the finest examples of Byzantine painting in Anatolia, and its style shows that the painters most probably came from Constantinople.
Tips for your visit
Don’t miss it: many visitors pass by because it stands outside the main entrance of the Göreme Open Air Museum, on the road down to Göreme town. Your ticket for the museum is checked at the door. With your private guide, the visit takes about half an hour, and it is a perfect introduction before the Apple Church and the Dark Church inside the museum.
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