Only some foundations remain, but the church was once famous as the burial place of the Byzantine emperor Theodore I (Lascaris). Built around 800 and reconstructed after a mid-11th century earthquake, it's İznik's only church that was never converted into a mosque; unsurprisingly, it was dynamited by victorious Turks after the Independence War.
Lascaris, who established the Empire of Nicaea after the Crusaders' 1204 conquest, built Nicaea's outer walls, which were then supported by over 100 towers and protected by a wide moat.
