Cambazlı Church

Cambazlı Church is one of the best preserved Late Antique Period structures that has survived to the present day and is located in Cambazlı Village, Silifke District, Mersin Province. It can be said that Cambazlı Church, for which it is understood that in almost all of it local limestone was used as a material, incorporates many features within the scope of the general Christian architecture of the Cilicia Region. Although it is difficult to give a clear date on the construction without conducting surveys and excavations, based on the observations specific to plan, building technique and architectural elements, suggestion of a date between A.D. 5th and 6th centuries seems reasonable. It is seen that the church, which has common points with the Emperor Zeno Period, especially with its three-nave basilica planned structure, also has various connections with the surplus structure in the rural areas that developed with the economic crisis period of Rome in the A.D. 6th century. Although certain publications were made for the church in the 20th century, mostly by foreigners, there is no current and comprehensive study on the structure. The researchers in question either mentioned the Cambazlı Church in very limited parts or made some erroneous interpretations because some of them did not see the church in person. At this point, the aim of the study is creating a current source by examining the structure in detail and to achieve reasonable results in matters such as the architectural structure of the church, the period of construction, the reason why it was built in the region.