Guide
Çavuşin church stands beside the Göreme-Avanos road, 2.5 kilometres from Göreme, and it was built in 964-965, after the eastern Roman emperor Nikephoros Phokas visited Cappadocia. It is cut into the rock on two levels, with monks' rooms below and the church above. Know before you go that the natural stair up to the church has collapsed, and access today is by an iron stair. The church is very tall, with a single nave, a barrel vault and three apses; its narthex has fallen.
The interior walls are painted throughout, and the reason this church is singled out is that the imperial family appears in them: alongside the Gospel scenes are portraits of Nikephoros Phokas, his wife Theophano and other members of the household, with archangels shown in the narthex. On the west wall are Joseph and Mary after the ordeal, the journey to Bethlehem, the Nativity, the Last Supper, the Betrayal, the Descent into Hell and the Baptism. The north wall carries the Passion in sequence — Christ before Pilate, Christ on the road to Golgotha, the Crucifixion and the death of Christ — and the south wall the Entry into Jerusalem, the Raising of Lazarus, the healing of the blind man, the Deposition and the women at the empty tomb. The vault holds the Annunciation, the Visitation, the proof of virginity, the Flight into Egypt, Joseph's second dream, the sending out of the apostles, the Adoration of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents, the pursuit of Elizabeth and the killing of Zechariah, and the Transfiguration is painted on the apse wall.
