Guide
The church of Aya Haralambos carries an inscription saying that it was built over the remains of a temple that had belonged to the Avars. The text runs: that Charalampos, unwilling to sacrifice to idols, offered himself to God like a sheep for sacrifice; that the elect who love Christ built his temple at Bebek on the Bosphorus, on the site of the metochion that had formerly belonged to the Avars; and it calls on him, when the drops of the Great Bear give the evening sign, to ask the saviour's forgiveness for those drowning in the darkness of their sins.
An inscription of 1804 on an icon of the Virgin said to be in the church records that it was decorated through the gifts of the respected money-changers of the village of Bebek, and that the church was rebuilt in 1830; a plaque of 1830 stands on the building. A document of 1889 records that permission was given to repair the bell tower, which had fallen into ruin. Note a discrepancy in the official listing: both the inscription and the icon record place the church at Bebek on the Bosphorus, while the address given on the same page is Kazlıçeşme in Zeytinburnu.
