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 The
Church of St. John, located at the southern foot of the castle hill, is
the most magnificent of the buildings from the Byzantine Period.
The historian
Eusebius tells us that after the apostles were expelled from Jerusalem
around AD 37 to 42, St. John continued his work in Anatolia from
Ephesus. In this way we can understand when St. John and Mary, the
mother of Jesus, who had been entrusted to him by her Son, came to
Ephesus.
After the
martyrdom of St. Paul, St. John wrote his gospel and labored in his
ministry to the churches in the area. After his death, he was buried in
the church that was built to remember  him.
After Christianity came into its own in the fourth century, a
wooden-roofed basilica was built over the site of his grave. The
basilica was cross-shaped with five naves and a narthex. The grave of
St. John is purported to be under the central nave. Fortifications were
built around the church in the 7th and 8th centuries at the time of Arab
incursions into the area, giving it the appearance of an outer castle
connected to the castle on the hill.
In the 14th
century, after the Isabey Mosque was built near the church, the area
became better known. It is visited today by numerous tourists thanks to
the excavation work that is still going on.
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