In Central Türkiye's Cappadocia region lies a complex of tucked-away cave churches carved from volcanic rock in the Göreme Valley. The most famous is the 10th-century Buckle Church (Tokali Kilise), revered for its illustrious Byzantine mural paintings.
Brightly coloured medieval murals
From the outside, the cave churches blend into the semi-arid environment of Anatolia. But on the inside are explosions of rich color frescoes.
The Buckle Church's intricate frescoes tell stories from the life of Christ.
ICCROM's restoration of the Buckle Church's frescoes
Tokali Kilise's brilliant murals received needed restoration work in the 1970s.
In 1972, ICCROM created a conservation plan for the Rock Churches of Göreme, identifying conservation problems - such as structural stabilization, conservation of the mural paintings, weathering of the stone, and maintenance and tourist related damage.
Soon after, we had our first of what would be five international missions of ICCROM experts. The first expedition concentrated on restoring the Tokali Church's mural paintings and help with the most urgent conservation emergencies in the Göreme churches.
We spent nearly two decades working with local specialists from the Middle East Technical University and Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism to conserve and restore mural paintings in several of the cave churches.
It's always important for us to share conservation best practices with local communities in the places we work. We helped prepare Turkish heritage professionals for future conservation interventions with an ICCROM course on mural painting conservation. We also organized a seminar on "The Safeguard of Rock-Hewn Churches" with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and UNESCO in Göreme in 1993.
The image you see is of a mural painting in the Tokali Kilise's nave vault after our restoration work was completed in 1990. One of our restorers captured the shot during the fifth and final ICCROM mission to Göreme.
Experience the Tokali Kilise murals
View a sample at the ICCROM Archive
We have small fragments of the murals stored in the ICCROM Archive, as part of the Mora samples collection. Our team is working to digitize and catalogue all our heritage samples, which will soon be available to discover online.
Original documentation about our extensive restoration project of the Göreme churches is available for public view at the ICCROM Archives. Request an appointment to come visit us.
Visit the murals at the UNESCO World Heritage Site
Göreme has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985 under the name Goreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia. Today, they are part of the Göreme Open-Air Museum, where you can see the restored frescoes for yourself.