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Myra (; , Mýra) was a city in Lycia. The city was probably founded by Lycians on the river Myros (; Turkish: Demre Çay), in the fertile alluvial plain between, the Massikytos range (Turkish: Alaca Dağ) and the Aegean Sea. By the 3rd century BC the city was Hellenization. Following the wars of the diadochi the area came under the loose control of the Ptolemies, the Seleucid Empire, and finally the Roman Republic.
The region remained under Roman Empire control until it was conquered by the Seljuk Empire and later the Ottoman Empire. During the Ottoman rule the small Turkish town of Kale was established in the area of Myra in the present-day Antalya Province of Turkey. Kale was renamed to Demre in 2005.
The ancient Lycian citizens worshiped Artemis Eleutheria, who was the protective goddess of the town. Zeus, Athena and Tyche were venerated as well. Pliny the Elder writes that in Myra there was the spring of Apollo called Curium and when summoned three times by the pipe the fishes come to give oracular responses. In the Roman period, Myra formed a part of the Koine Greek speaking world that rapidly embraced Christianity. One of its early Lycian bishops was Saint Nicholas.
Alluvial silts mostly cover the ruins of the Lycian and Roman towns. The acropolis on the Demre-plateau, the Roman theatre and the Roman baths ( eski hamam) have been partly excavated. The semi-circular theatre was destroyed in an earthquake in 141, but rebuilt afterward.
There are two necropolis of rock-cut tombs in the form of temple fronts carved into the vertical faces of cliffs at Myra: the river necropolis and the ocean necropolis. The ocean necropolis is just northwest of the theatre. The best-known tomb in the river necropolis, up the Demre Cayi from the theatre, is the "Lion's tomb", also called the "Painted Tomb". When the traveler Charles Fellows saw the tombs in 1840 he found them still colorfully painted red, yellow and blue.
Andriaca was the harbor of Myra in ancient times, but silted up later on. The main structure there surviving to the present day is a granary (horrea) built during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138 AD). Beside this granary is a large heap of Murex shells, evidence that Andriake had an ongoing operation to produce purple dye.Gerhard Forstenpointer, et al., "Purple-Dye Production in Lycia – Results of an Archaeozoological Field Survey in Andriake (South-west Turkey)." Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26, 2 (2007):201–214.
Excavations have been carried out at Andriake since 2009. The granary was turned into the Museum of Lycian Civilizations. The granary has seven rooms and measures 56 meters long and 32 meters wide. Artifacts found during the excavations in the Lycian League were placed in the museum. The structures in the harbor market as well as the agora, synagogue, and a six-meter deep, 24-meter long and 12-meter wide cistern were restored. A 16-meter-long Roman-era boat, a crane, and a cargo car were placed in front of the museum.
In 1923, its Greek inhabitants was required to leave by the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, at which time its church was finally abandoned.
Myra is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see both in the Latin Church and as a bishopric of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in particular. Latin bishops are no longer appointed to this see, though Melkite bishops are. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 931
The city was brought back once more under Roman control during the Komnenian restoration, before it was eventually lost at some point after the Fourth Crusade.
In 1863, Emperor Alexander II of Russia purchased the building and began restoration, but the work was never completed. In 1923 the church was abandoned when the city's Christian inhabitants were forced to leave for Greece by the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey. In 1963 the eastern and southern sides of the church were excavated. In 1968 the former confessio (tomb) of St. Nicholas was roofed over.
The floor of the church is made of opus sectile, a mosaic of coloured marble, and there are some remains of on the walls. A marble sarcophagus had been reused to bury the Saint; but his bones were stolen in 1087 by merchants from Bari, and are now held in that city, in the Basilica of Saint Nicholas.
The church is currently undergoing restoration. In 2007 the Turkish Ministry of Culture gave permission for the Divine Liturgy to be celebrated in the church for the first time in centuries. On 6 December 2011 Metropolitan Chrysostomos, who has the title of Myra, accordingly officiated.romfea.gr
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