Göreme: MRA-TUR-Gor008

The “Buckle” church is composed of a group of four churches (Old Tokalı, New Tokalı, the Lower Church, and the Side Church) with a hermitage, dating to the 900s and set in a Cappadocian cave. The hermitage is an unadorned cell with a hagioscope facing Old Tokalı and the icon in New Tokalı. The churches themselves are remarkable for their series of vivid mural paintings covering biblical stories. The murals were executed in the 10^th-11^th centuries, and feature both the “provincial” and “metropolitan” styles. The separate churches of the complex can be distinguished as well by the distinctive subject matter of their frescoes; while Old Tokalı is adorned with a Christological cycle, for instance, New Tokalı deals largely with the lives of saints, church leaders, and martyrs. The Church’s restoration during the 1970s included the cleaning of these frescoes, and since 2011, a collaboration between Turkish authorities and Italian restorers has been dedicated to the maintenance of these artworks.

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Further reading:

Epstein, A. W., Wharton, A. J., & Schwartzbaum, P. M. (1986). Tokalı Kilise: tenth-century metropolitan art in Byzantine Cappadocia (Vol. 22). Dumbarton Oaks.