Turkey (8)

After our visit to Hagia Sofia, the bus took us westward, past Galatabridge and Atatürkbridge (both leading over to Galata), and past Kadir Has (with cedille - can't find that sign, either) University to the seat, home and cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, St George Cathedral.
The home and offices have recently been renovated, all the wood panelling being made new.

St George Cathedral is part of the entire compound.
It would not surprise me much if the visit of Pope Benedict XVI was the reason for the extensive renovation works (see link: http://papalvisit.ecupatriarchate.org/ )


In the foyer to the church, the two Andreas-es just HAD to have their photo taken with the image of St Andreas, they just couldn't walk past there without ... wasn't easy to get the "old Andreas's" face shown and not getting too many window reflections... ;-)

The inside was very much like I usually imagine orthodox churches, many icons, lots of gold, many, many ornaments.

And many (different) chandeliers, one of which I photographed from below (just for the fun of it).

But considering that this Patriarch's seat compares to Vatican and this cathedral compares to St Peter's in Rome, it is relatively small, albeit richly decorated! Here is the view from the front towards the altar.

The reason why there is a person in my photo (she's part of the group we were with) is because she tried and tried to get a photo of this reclined Jesus above the door (behind me when I took the overview), but couldn't get it right, so I took it for her.