Surp Kevork Kilisesi

Surp Kevork Kilisesi stands in Istanbul’s Fatih district as an Armenian church on Byzantine foundations. The site also carries the name Water Monastery.

A fifth-century Byzantine church and monastery once occupied this location, known as Hagios Stephanos en tais Aurelianai. A nearby water source gave the complex its older name. In the eleventh century, Emperor Romanos III Argyros established the monastery of Theotokos Peribleptos here. Romanos III was buried within this monastery complex.

After the Ottoman conquest, the church passed to Istanbul’s Armenian community and served the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. Several fires led to repeated rebuilding across the site. Michael Hagopian supported a major nineteenth-century reconstruction after fires had damaged the site. The church has a rectangular form and bell gable. Its decorated interior rises beneath a barrel vault, while a chapel honours Saint John the Forerunner above the Ayazma. The Ayazma is a sacred spring within this historic church complex. These features preserve Byzantine, Armenian, and Ottoman layers in Fatih.