Photo: Hagia Irene Church seen from Istanbul ferry over the Ruins of Byzantium. Hagia Irene is a former Eastern Orthodox church located in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The building reputedly stands on the site of a pre-Christian temple. It ranks, in fact, as the first church built in Constantinople. Roman emperor Constantine I commissioned the first Hagia Eirene church in the 4th century. In 381 the First Council of Constantinople took place in the church. It served as the church of the Patriarchate before Hagia Sophia was completed in 537.
