Azize Tereza KilisesiChurch of St. Thérèse

The Church of St. Thérèse is on Kardeşler Street in Ulus, the historic center of Ankara. In 1915 the St. Clement French College, run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes), stood here; at the time the area was also close to the old Armenian quarter. The street took the name “Kardeşler Sokağı” (Brothers’ Street) in memory of these brothers, who taught French.

In the great Ankara fire of 1916 the college and the whole surrounding neighborhood burned down; only one wall of the college remained. In 1928 a building was put up on the site of the old college, with the chancery of the French Embassy on the ground floor and a hall and a small chapel on the first floor. In the early years the French consul lived here; the apartments were later given to a small French school until 1962.

The most precious part of the building is the chapel on the first floor, fully restored in 2002; after the restoration it was dedicated to St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Its main mosaic is by the French artist Hervé Vital, inspired by the churches of Cappadocia: David and Solomon, and Adam and Eve reaching for the hand held out by the risen Christ as He comes out of the tomb. The mosaics on either side show Mary with the Child Jesus in her arms and Christ blessing, holding the Gospel in one hand. The cross is the work of Madeleine Diener.

The rams’ heads on the column capitals recall the sacrifices of the Old Testament, and the ears of wheat and bunches of grapes in the corners of the ceiling recall the Eucharist. Six of the stained-glass windows in the side walls were made in Bordeaux in 1914 by D. P. Dagrant; they were in the chapel of the French College in İzmit, were kept in Kadıköy when the school closed in 1920, and were installed here in 1952. The four windows that complete the series were made in Florence. The church is run today by Jesuit priests and belongs to the Latin Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Istanbul.