The first picture of the Church in the world; Panagia Pantobasilissa Church
Tirilye, an old Greek village with its every street smelling history, is 20 minutes away from the Mudanya district of Bursa. It is reached by a curvilinear path whose one side is the sea and other side is the green hills. One side is the sea, one side is the green hills, the is reached. The Trilye, which has 100-year-old houss alined around narrow streets took its name from 3 priests who were once exiled from Istanbul.
Situations of a majority of the ancient Greek houses in stone or wooden architecture are heartbreaking. The histories of some of the houses with two or three floors date back to 500 years. Despite being magnificent, the ruined and abandoned “Taş Mektep”, the Panagia Pantobasilissa Church (Kemerli Kilise in Turkish) are in disrepair. It is not possible to visit both of them, you can only look from the outside.
There were many magnificent churches and monasteries built around Tirilye and its surroundings, which attracted great interest in the ages of Christianity, but unfortunately only 3 churches and 1 monastery could reach nowadays. One of these is the Panagia Pantobasilissa Church, which is believed to have been built in the late 13th century.
Panagia Pantobasilissa Church, Tirilye
It is rumored that the columns of the Panagia Pantobasilissa Church, which is very important for the Orthodox world, were brought from Egypt’s Alexandria city. It is known that it was built at the end of the 13th century and it is told that the church was dedicated to Panagia Pantobasillissa (Virgin Mary), in a manuscript document prepared by Dr.J.Covelin in 1676.
The Panagia Pantobasilissa Church, which is known as the first church in the world with pictures on its walls, is about to destroy. If these historic heritage sites are renovated, it is enough to attract many visitors to this charming place with their features whose each one is worth seeing. Althought it is said that the Panagia Pantobasilissa Church will be restored by the Greek Patriarchate by faithfully and rituals will be helld as the past days, the work have not been started yet.
