Saint Paul's Church, Tarsus

Saint Paul's Church is a former Greek Orthodox church in Tarsus, Mersin Province, Turkey.Tarsus and the churchesTarsus, in the Cilicia of the antiquity, in what is now southern Turkey, was an important city during both ancient and medieval ages. The tombs of Daniel of the Bible, and the caliph Al-Ma'mun (786-833), are both in Tarsus. Saint Paul was a resident of Tarsus. He was born and lived in Tarsus as a Jew named Saul and after converting, made a number of missionary journeys during which he was arrested and beheaded by emperor Nero of Roman Empire in AD 64 or 67 on the 29th of June. After Saint Paul's death, Tarsus continued as an important city of the area. It became a part of the Byzantine Empire, the Abbasid Empire, the Seljuk Empire, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, the Ramadanids and the Ottoman Empire.It is not known if there were any churches established by Paul in Tarsus, but in 1704, P. Lucas wrote that there was a Roman style church which had been built by Saint Paul. V. Langlois visited Tarsus in 1851 and confirmed this. In his words, thick walls which resembled Roman style windows which are narrower outside than inside, and thick columns are noticeable, but no other records exist to substantiate this claim.