Historical Site
Council of Nicaea Site
COWN-sil of ny-SEE-uh · Modern İznik, Turkey · 40.4286° N, 29.7211° E
In AD 325, Emperor Constantine I convened the First Ecumenical Council in the city of Nicaea, gathering roughly 250-318 bishops from across the Christian world to resolve the Arian controversy over the nature of Christ. The council produced the original Nicene Creed, the first empire-wide doctrinal statement of the Christian church, and addressed the dating of Easter and other matters of church order.
Archaeology
The council almost certainly met in an imperial palace complex whose precise location within ancient Nicaea has not been definitively excavated. In 2014, archaeologists discovered a submerged late-4th/early-5th-century basilica in Lake İznik; some scholars have proposed it was built to commemorate the council, but this connection remains speculative. The Hagia Sophia standing in İznik's town center today was rebuilt after the 1065 earthquake atop an earlier basilica and hosted the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 — a related but distinct site.
On a modern map
Further reading
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