Mapping the Christian cultural heritage in Türkiye

Anatolia has been an important center since the early periods of Christian history. Christianity developed in Anatolia during the Roman, Eastern Roman and Ottoman Empires. For this reason, Christianity has an important place in Türkiye's faith tourism values. When the literature on the subject is examined, it is seen that there are few studies that comprehensively address the Christian cultural heritage in Türkiye. However, it is possible to identify cultural heritage elements of Christianity not only in large settlements but also throughout Anatolia. In this context, it is aimed to reveal and map the elements of the cultural heritage of Christianity in Türkiye. Document analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. By comparatively scanning official sources and scientific publications, churches, chapels and monasteries in every city, district, rural areas and places outside the settlements were identified and a Table of Christian Buildings in Türkiye was created. The names, locations, current usage status (church, mosque, cultural center, etc.) and whether they are included in conservation programs are shown on the table. Density maps were created using this data. As a result, 622 buildings/building communities in 622 different locations were reached across the country. These data were visualized and density maps were created for 7 regions together with the Türkiye Map. The number of active religious buildings is close to 200. More than 170 of these are churches, while the remaining structures are patriarchates, monasteries, ayazma and chapels. Approximately 16% of the buildings across the country are used as museums or are located in ruins and archaeological excavation sites. Approximately 9% of buildings have been converted into mosques. A small number of buildings are used as cultural centers, art galleries, stages, libraries or libraries. The total number of these buildings is 20. Nearly 200 buildings were found to be abandoned, damaged or in ruins. KEYWORDS:Faith Tourism, Christianity, Churches, Religious Structures, Cultural Heritage