Selçuk - Basilica Of Saint John

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Selçuk - Basilica Of Saint John

Wednesday 26 January 2022

We caught the morning train to Selçuk, arriving around 12:30 pm. When we stepped down from the train, the first thing we noticed was the remains of a Byzantine Aqueduct crossing the square in front of the station and an old fortress overlooking the town from a nearby hill.

Selçuk is small, so our hotel was not far from the station. We checked in, dropped our bags off and decided to explore the castle-like fortress on the hill. The map showed an entrance to the fort at the bottom of the mound that it sat on. When we found the gate, it was closed, so we continued around the base of the mound looking for another way gate. There weren’t any. Eventually, we passed the Isa Bey Mosque and arrived at the Basilica Of Saint John. The only way to the fort was through the Basilica.

Justinian I constructed The Basilica Of Saint John in the 6th century over John the Apostle’s believed burial site and modelled the Basilica after the now lost Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.

John the Apostle is believed to have travelled from Jerusalem to the city of Ephesus. During his time in Ephesus, Emperor Domitian exiled him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote Revelation (the Apocalypse). John the Apostle was pardoned when Nerva became emperor, after which John returned to Ephesus, where he lived the remainder of his days.

The Basilica was constructed over the tomb of St John some three hundred years after his death. Some also believe that the Virgin Mary, who Jesus had asked John to look after, also lived and died nearby and located not far from Ephesus are the Ancient Church of Mary

(Meryem Kilisesi) and the Virgin Mary House.

Having explored the ruins of the Basilica, we moved further up the Ayasuluk Hill to the fort (Ayasuluk Citadel). Ayasuluk Hill was the original location of Ephesus before it moved to a new location a few kilometres away. The earliest archaeological remains at the site date to the Hittite era of the 2nd millennium BC, when the site was known as Apasa.

The Citadel is also dated to the 6th Century Byzantine era and was modified many times over the following centuries.