How many Popes have visited Turkey?

Pope Leo XIV has became the fifth holder of his office to visit Turkey, in the latest chapter in decades-old ties between the country and the Vatican.

Turkey has a “privileged place in the geography of papal journeys”, the Vatican press office said.

Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to Turkey in 1967, seven years after modern diplomatic ties were established. On that trip, the pontiff returned to Turkey a flag taken from the Ottomans during a battle in 1571.

Pope Leo XIV lays a wreath at the Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara. Getty Images

Pope John Paul II then visited in 1979, Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, and Pope Francis in 2014.

The visits have typically involved the leader of the world’s Catholics meeting senior Eastern Orthodox leaders, in a long process of improving ties since the two churches split in 1054. Bartholomew I of Constantinople, spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, lives in Istanbul.

Pontiffs have also used visits to Turkey to build interfaith ties in a country whose 86 million population is overwhelmingly Muslim.

Pope Leo will visit Istanbul's Blue Mosque, also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Reuters

Two previous popes have held silent prayers at the 17th century Blue Mosque, a symbol of Ottoman Empire power and today a tourist attraction, as well as a working place of Muslim worship. In 2006, Benedict XVI became the second pope to visit the Istanbul mosque. His predecessor, John Paul II, had visited the Ummayyad mosque in Damascus five years previously.

In 2014, Pope Francis visited the Blue Mosque, also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Under its domed ceiling, he clasped his hands and paused for two minutes as Grand Mufti of Istanbul Rahmi Yaran performed a Muslim prayer.

Pope Leo is scheduled to visit the Blue Mosque on Saturday morning and to hold silent prayers. Previous papal visits have seen demonstrators, mostly from Islamist or nationalist parties, against what they see as affronts to Turkey’s secularism and Muslim majority.

Istanbul's Hagia Sophia was converted back to a mosque in 2020. AP

Unlike some of his predecessors, Pope Leo will not visit the nearby Hagia Sophia, built as a church in the 6th century. The site was converted into a mosque by the Ottomans and then into a museum during the secularising era of the 20th century Turkish Republic.