Restoring Byzantium : The Wallach Art Gallery : 9781884919152 : 1884919154 : 14 Apr 2004 : With the exception of Hagia Sophia, no Byzantine monument in the modern city of Istanbul can rival the former church of the monastery of the chora (Kariye Camii) in either the lavishness and splendor of its interior decoration, the upkeep of its grounds and garden, or, for that matter, the number of tourists from all over the world. Theodore Metochites, minister and subsequently prime minister of the Byzantine Empire, during a short period of cultural revival, undertook the rebuilding and renovation of the Kariye Camii. The greatest intellectual of his age, and thus knowledgeable and involved, he was wealthy and powerful and therefore in a position to assume the patronage of this church. Metochites early fourteenth?century rebuilding included the reconstruction of the naos dome; the pastophoria; the addition of a two-storied annex to the north, an inner and outer narthex to the west; and the pare