Balatlar Church

Balatlar Church, also known as the Sinope Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, is the ruins of a church located in Sinop, Turkey, in the Yusufoglu district. This church dates back to the Byzantine era and covers an area of 3,062 m². It was built around 660 AD in the form of a rectangular basilica, possibly on the site where Saint Phocas died. Previously, a Roman bath was located on this site, and in the 11th-13th centuries, the building was used for grain storage. During the Ottoman Empire, it was again handed over to the Christian community and used as a monastery. However, the building was abandoned in the 1920s due to the deportation of Christian Greeks as part of the "population exchange" between Turkey and Greece.