Preservation problems of the religious buildings non-muslim communities in Antioch: Cultural route

The main topic of the thesis is to create a proposal for the protection and continuity of the non-Muslim religious heritage located in the Antakya and Samandağ regions. For this purpose, within the scope of the thesis, the historical environment, historical process and religious heritage characteristics of the region were examined, and a field study was conducted to determine the religious heritage and regional characteristics. The literature and field studies have drawn attention to the importance of Christianity in the historical process of the region. Cultural route planning has been used as a tool to increase awareness of the heritage of Christian culture in the city, to emphasize the multicultural cultural identity of the region, and to preserve the heritage that has survived from different periods and civilizations. Antakya and Samandağ have been found suitable as a study area for their properties such as both being multi-layered cities, having traces of different civilizations, having religious routes, and having a good potential for cultural route planning. This thesis; presents a cultural route classification, planning and design example proposal through the case study area. The purpose here is; increasing the awareness of the religious heritage in the city, revealing the universal characteristics of the region, experiencing the cultural heritage of the city in the daily life of the city residents and contributing to conservation by increasing the awareness of conservation. The thesis, which offers a holistic preservation proposal by including the invisible cultural heritage as well as the visible cultural heritage, contains an original study with this feature, and contains subjective researches and suggestions about the formation processes of cultural routes. Keywords: Cultural route, Christianity, churches, Antakya, Samandağ