The Church of Constantine and Helena (Eleni), one of the most important churches of the Synasian Greeks, was built in the place that was a marketplace before the exchange. The basilical planned church has a barrel vault, three naves and three apses, and has an open courtyard in the west. The inscription on the entrance door on the north-western façade of the church contains an eight-line inscription written on marble stone in Greek letters, and is written from the mouth of the church in a unique way in the region:
“Followers of the pagans, most holy kings
I am the temple of the believers Constantine and Eleni.
I was partially built during the reign of Sultan Ahmet
I was properly adorned during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid.
During the time when the famous Pasios was the abbot
The struggle of the Sinosian community and
I was built from foundations with expenses
In 1729. In 1850, I was repaired”.
Geometric ornaments as well as yellow and dark blue plant and fruit motifs seen around the inscription add a lot of liveliness to the entrance. There are also three lighting windows in the upper part of the facade where the entrance door is located, and the reliefs around the window in the middle attract attention. There are two dragons standing opposite each other with their heads raised in the middle, the angel Seraph on the left, and the figure of an eagle on the right. On other facades, the inscriptions 1850 and 1851 can be seen in relief. The interior south-east façade of the building opens into a space carved into the rock with a low ceiling. It is thought that this place may have been used as an area where people spent the night and prayed for healing. Stone material was used on the walls of the church, which was built with masonry and carving techniques, and wood and iron materials were used in the door, ceiling and window elements. Although traces of paint can be seen on the interior walls of the building, there is no wall painting with a figure that can be identified.
There are various legendary narratives about the construction of the church. As it is known, Christians could not build new churches from 1453, when Byzantium was conquered, until non-Muslim citizens were given the freedom to build churches with the Tanzimat Edict (1839). Considering this information, it is noteworthy that the story of the construction of the Constantine and Helena church is interesting. According to an explanation by Serafim Rizos, the way the church took its current form is as follows: In the 1700s, there used to be a small church where the church is located, and the church needed to be renovated. At that time, the Ottoman Empire gave Christians eighty days to build their churches. However, with the initiatives of Serafim Rizos’ grandfather, known by the villagers as “Black”, all the Christian people in the village mobilize to demolish the old church and build a new one. The public supplies the necessary materials for the construction of the new church, and with a decree issued, the church is built within eighty days. In the 1850s, the church was repaired with the money collected by the villagers. It can be seen that the information given by Serafim Rizos coincides with the statements written in the inscription.
In addition to Sunday services and holidays, the church was also used for school ceremonies, ceremonies to welcome the bishop’s guests, and prayers for the health of the sultan or the success of the army. The church, which is open to visitors today, hosts various cultural and artistic events.
