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The Pammakaristos Church is a Byzantine church in Istanbul. It was the last pre-Ottoman home of the Ecumenical Patriarchate before being converted into the Fethiye Mosque in 1591. Today, part of it functions as a museum. The building, an important example of Palaiologan architecture, houses the largest collection of Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul after Hagia Sophia and Chora.
Built between the 11th and 12th centuries, the church was later expanded with a side chapel, the parekklesion, dedicated to Christos ho Logos. After the Ottoman conquest, it served as the Patriarchate until 1587, then became a mosque under Sultan Murad III. Significant alterations were made to accommodate Islamic prayer.
Restored in 1949, the parekklesion became a museum. Further renovations began in 2021, and the mosque reopened for prayer in 2022, with restoration completed in 2024. The church originally had a cross-in-square design, later modified under Ottoman rule. The parekklesion retains stunning mosaics, including a Pantocrator dome surrounded by Old Testament prophets and scenes of Christ's Baptism.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.