This was my favorite church of the many we visited during the two week Cappadocia in Context program. Robert Ousterhout described the faces as having a very sweet quality, which I think is accurate. They’re like serene cartoons. Judith Cave (it’s destiny) wrote a dissertation on the church in 1984 — The Byzantine wall paintings of Kiliçlar Kilise: aspects of monumental decoration in Cappadocia — but I haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy through ILL.

When we visited, the building had been closed for almost five years after a restoration project was begun and abandoned. The wooden scaffolding was still up, however, so I was able to get incredibly close to the ceiling paintings. Unfortunately it was too tight to get the establishing shots necessary for a good photosynth. For the sake of conservation I didn’t want to use a flash, so most of the photos are too dark to be usable. A few turned out pretty well, though.