St. Voukolos Orthodox Church

St. Voukolos Orthodox Church

Saint Voukolos is one of the few Greek Orthodox churches that survived the Great Fire of Izmir in 1922. It was built by the Greek Orthodox Community, with permission from the Ottoman administration in 1865, on an old temple site in 1866-1867. The church is dedicated to the first bishops of İzmir, Saint Voukolos and Saint Polycarpe. The church, which survived after the fire, became unusable because the Greek population left the city after the population exchange, and it was left without a community.

The Saint Voukolos Church building, where the collection of antiquities started in 1923, began to be known as Asar-ı Atika, the Museum of Antiquities, from 1924 onwards. However, the building was restored and opened as a museum only on February 15, 1927, after the classification of ancient artifacts. The museum, which Atatürk visited when he came to İzmir in 1931, was named Archeology Museum in 1943.

Until the opening of the modern Archeology Museum in 1984, the Saint Voukolos Church building continued to be used for exhibition and storage. In the same year, it was allocated to Izmir State Opera and Ballet Directorate and started to serve as an Opera Study Hall. It was not used again after a fire during this period.

The restoration and landscaping works of the neglected and dilapidated building, also known as the 'Gözlü Church', were completed in 2010 by the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality to be used as a multi-purpose cultural hall. While the church was restored to its original state after a hard work, the Jesus figure hidden behind the layers of paint, the Golden Mouth Saint John and the murals symbolizing the angels Michael and Gabriel were also brought to light.

The history

Saint Voukolos Church was built by the Greek Orthodox Community in the second half of the 19th century.It is an Orthodox Greek Church located in the quarter of Etiler, in the neighborhood of Kapılar, built in 1886. Although other Greek Churches in the city burned down during the great Izmir fire in 1922, Ayavukla Church was not affected by this fire. Later, the building, which lost its function after the Greeks left İzmir with the exchange, was turned into a Museum of Asar-ı Atika at the request of Atatürk in February 1924. It was organized as İzmir Archeology Museum in February 1927, and this situation continued until the museum building in Kültürpark was opened in 1951. With the proclamation of the Republic, with the importance of museum studies, some reliefs, sculptures, friezes and many historical artifacts were saved and put in their garden. In 1951, the museum was moved from here to the fairground. The building, known as the 'Gözlü Church', was later used as a warehouse and was allocated to the İzmir State Opera and Ballet Directorate for a period, but became out of use after an unfortunate fire. The building, whose ownership belongs to the Treasury, was registered as a cultural asset to be protected with the circular number 152 dated 17 January 1975.