The church was later rebuilt and has survived to this day, Sezgin said, adding that restoration and landscaping work has been carried out in the church for the last two years.
Sezgin said that they conducted the work without completely closing the church, adding that the icons in the church were improved and strengthened.
Noting that it is one of the important churches visited as a pilgrimage site by Christians, she said: "The St. Nicholas Museum is the most visited archaeological site in our region. We saw figures in the 700,000s; there was a decrease in the number of visitors during the pandemic, but this year we hosted 450,000 visitors, and the number of visitors is increasing rapidly. It is not difficult to reach 1 million because there is incredible demand. We have visitors from Russia, Greece, and many European countries."
