Pantocrator Church

Pantocrator Church

The mosp important of the monasteries whose plans were designed as Greek crosses is the Pantocrator Christ Monastery built in the 12th century by the Comnenos family on an area with a good view of the Golden Horn. It is also known as the Zeyrek Church Mosque today the church consists of three structures adjacent to each other. The church in the middle was built as the burial chapel of the Comnenos family. Among the additional structures of the Pantocrator monastery was a hospital which had a capacity of 50 beds. Also the Akataleptos Monastery was built in the 11th century on the central point of the slope leading from Fatih to the Golden Horn. It had a church which is known as the Eski İmaret Mosque.

The Fourth Crusade turned against the Byzantine Empire and the Western knights who came here as friends overthrew the Byzantine emperor and took over the capital in 1204. They established a Latin Kindom which made the Byzantine Empire lose its status in world palitics. The conrol of some churches and monasteries in the city passed to the Catholics and the city turned into a ruin.