Inside St. Sophia
Iznik has been described by the Christian world as the third &quot;holy city&quot; after Jerusalem and the Vatican. The 1st and 7th Ecumenical Councils were held in Iznik in 325 and 787 A.D. As a result of controversies which arose because of doctrinal differences in the Christianty in 320 A.D. the Byzantine Emperor Constantine convened the first Ecumenical Council in Iznik in 325. At the Council, attended by 300 bishops, a solution was sought to resolve the controversy over the divinity of Christ. Later Empress Irene convened the 7th Council in Iznik in 787 A.D. At the end of the 19th Council held in the Vatican in 1962, Iznik was declared a &quot;holy city&quot; for Christians. A mosaic floor and mural of Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist survive from the original church. A mosaic floor and mural of Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist survive from the original church.  The chuch was the site of the 7th ecumenical council of christianity (2nd council of Nicaea, in 787). In 1331, Orhan Gazi had it converted to a mosque. In the reign of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, the sultan's great architect, Mimar Sinan, made some additions and modifications to improve its function as a house of worship. Badly ruined sometime thereafter (perhaps by earthquakes), it was restored to its former shape beginning in 2007, and re-opened as a mosque in November 2011, which means you can now enter and get a good idea of the building's earlier Byzantine form.

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