Monastery of the Presentation of the Theotokos

The Monastery of the Presentation of the Theotokos was an important foundation of the Palaiologan period, regularly visited by the imperial court for the feast of the Presentation in the Temple. It attracted many pilgrims, drawn by its reported relics: the hand of St. John the Baptist, the head of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and the jaw of St. Stephen. The Spanish ambassador Ruy González de Clavijo described the monastery in 1402. The main building contained a courtyard and richly decorated imperial tombs; the complex also had a large refectory with Christological mosaics, a cloister with an image of the Tree of Jesse, living quarters, gardens and vineyards. Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425) stayed here during an epidemic and the siege by Sultan Murad II. After the Ottoman conquest, the monastery became the seat of the Armenian Patriarchate, a source of conflict between Greeks and Armenians. The original 11th-century katholikon survived until unknown later date.