Two churches in Istanbul. Chora Church has 2 tickets and tours to book; St. George’s Cathedral, Istanbul has no online ticket listed. The table and the two notes below put them side by side; the full pages have what to see, the ticket and the timing for each.
The Chora reopened in 2024 as a working mosque after four years of restoration, and the arrangement has changed: entry is by ticket for visitors, free for worshippers, with the ticket sold at the door and online. Audio guide apps cover the mosaics and are worth having, because nothing is labelled. Guided tours of the Fatih district include the Chora and cost several times the ticket, usually adding the Byzantine walls, the Balat quarter and sometimes the Galata tower;
The Cathedral of Saint George stands in the Fener district of Istanbul, on the Golden Horn, inside the compound of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the spiritual centre of Orthodox Christianity, and entry is free. Visitors pass through a security check at the gate. Fener and neighbouring Balat are old neighbourhoods of colourful houses, steep streets and churches, synagogues and mosques, and walking tours of the two districts include the Patriarchate, the Bulgarian Iron Church of Saint Stephen, the red-brick Phanar Greek Orthodox College and the Chora Church museum.
