Writer: Mustafa Kaya
May 2009

Because of not having a complete inventory the number of chapels and churches around Ürgüp is unknown. The churches situated in the center of Ürgüp were carved into the rocks to benefit the natural formation of the surrounding since the beginning of Christianity in the region until the mid XIX century. Every religion has used the previous one’s holly temples and due to the need the rock graves and houses were turned into praying places, like transformation of Roman graves and pagan temples into churches or transformation of churches into mosques or dovecots. The underground cities and tunnels created a perfect atmosphere for the secret propagandas during the beginning of Christianity.  At the beginning the churches were carved either underground or on exalted rocky hills, which were easy to protect such as Ürgüp Kadı Castle and Uçhisar Castle. Today there are 11 churches in the center of Ürgüp.
1) Saint Prokopios Church (on Kadı Caste)
2) Gez Church (on Kadı Castle)
3) Kemerli Church (on Kadı Castle)
4) Yan Chapel (on Kadı Castle)
5) Saint Georgios Church (on Teknecik Quarter)
6) Esbelli Small Chapel (on Esbelli Quarter)
7) The Church on Esbelli Aksakal Street (on Esbelli Quarter)
8) Church Mosque (Kilise Mosque) (on Kayakapı Quarter)
9) Saint Georgios Church (under Temenni Hill)
10) Saint Vasilyos Church (in the place of Kurtuluş Mosque)
11) Saint Yuannis Church (in the place of Anatolia Vocational Training School)The first 5 of these churches will be tackled in this issue of our magazine and the rest 6 will be in the coming issue. Unfortunately the names of the churches numbered 2,3,4,6 and 7 are unknown, therefore they are named as above for this article, please accept our apologies.
Important Note: Except Church Mosque (Kilise Mosque), which is newly restorated above mentioned 10 churches can not be visited because some of them are in the private property, some are in landslide region and two of them are totally vanished.

Note: This article has been published in Peribacası Cappadocia Culture and Publicity Magazine, May 2009 issue. It is under protection of the copyrights of the magazine. No part of this article may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by electronic, mechanical or other means without prior permission from the owner. www.cappadociaexplorer.com