Religious architecture of Adana in Byzantine Period

The present borders of Adana, which contains fertile lands known as Çukurova, largely in the region known as Cilicia in ancient times and partly as Cappadocia. Due to favorable climatic conditions, there are important ancient cities and a considerable number of rural settlements on the borders of Adana, which has been frequented by people since the Prehistoric period. Since the 1st century, Christianity has found its supporters in Adana and has spread rapidly due to its geographical proximity to the lands where Christianity originated and its location on the road route connecting the Near East and Anatolia. What we know about the saints and martyrs associated with Adana indicates the existence of an important Christian population in the region long before christianity was liberated. It is seen that there was a dense settlement in the region during the early Byzantine period, but these features were lost after the 7th century with the Arab Raids. Therefore, almost all of the remains of churches we examined in our study belong to the Early Byzantine Period. Our findings in our study showed that the region was in harmony with the general architectural understanding of the Early Byzantine Period. However, it has been determined that it has similarities and relations with Syria in terms of architectural features. Observations and findings show that the buildings in Adana have an important place in terms of architecture and art of the Early Byzantine period. With this study, which is based on the detection and evaluation of the religious architectural remains belonging to the Byzantine Period in the provincial borders of Adana, the architectural features of the buildings are discussed in detail. It is especially important that the structures in the mountainous region in the north, which are about to disappear, are recorded with this study.