Church of Mary

St. Mary's Church is a preserved today only in ruins of early Christian church from the 5th century in Ephesus in western Turkey today. She was the meeting place of the Council of Ephesus in 431

Origin of the Christian community

Barely 20 years after the ministry of Jesus who taught by Apollos at Ephesus in Asia Minor west coast passes (Acts 18:24-28 EU). The church of Ephesus was one of the oldest Christian communities in general. In the preaching of Apollos, the apostle Paul was able to establish that there had been already on the way back from his second missionary journey (about AD 52 ) short station (Acts 18,19 EU). About a year later, he scored again in Ephesus a (Acts 19 EU) and probably remained three years, of which he probably had to spend in prison for some time. During this imprisonment he wrote the Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon. Even more of his letters are most likely originated in Ephesus ( as the Romans, the first and second letter to the Corinthians and the Galatians ). An important letter was addressed to the Ephesians itself

Predecessor

There was a spacious temple on the site of the later St. Mary's Church. This was dedicated to Zeus Olympius ( " Olympian " ) and the deified emperor Hadrian ( " Hadrianeum "). The temple stood on a rectangular court surrounded by a portico of considerable dimensions. So far, only the southern, probably especially designed monumental entrance wing of the portico is excavated; he had a length of 263 and a width of 30 meters. The open outwards, divided by rows of columns into three aisles in basilica form inside room had small rooms with semi-circular exedra in which possibly stood statues at its ends.

The size of the building, its floor plan and individual architectural elements suggest that the system must be dated to the time of Hadrian in the 2nd century.

Construction phases

This particularly representative designed hall came after the victory of Christianity over the pagan deities for conversion to a church. With their tremendous length but it was too big for a house of God, so that was limited to the western part. In this church met in the year 431 the Council of Ephesus. It is unclear whether the conversion of the portico carried out specifically for this council and the new building has been subsequently used as bishop church or whether the conversion was done before 431 and the Council an existing church used as a conference venue. The church was the first in the world, dedicated to Mary, which is considered as evidence of their stay in Ephesus.

The church was rebuilt and enlarged several times by earthquakes. First you put on the west by a narthex, atrium and a baptistery. This baptistery was as usual octagonal shaped and covered with marble. Parts of the wall covering have been preserved until today. In the middle is the sunken into the ground baptismal font, which has an east- west orientation.

After the destruction of the Church ( 550 ) was converted into a domed basilica, the western part. As well as this fell apart, you used the eastern part of the old basilica as a church, where they replaced the pillars with brick piers. No later than the 7th century the bishopric of Ephesus was transferred to St. John's Basilica. However, as a burial church St. Mary's Church was far into the Middle Ages.

The ruins of the church were discovered and excavated in the 1920s during excavations and were investigated archaeologically again since 1986. It is believed that the ruins on the east side of the road are the remains of the episcopal palace.

Gallery

Outer wall of the apse