Early Christianity and Byzantine era The precise year when Christianity spread in Smyrna is unknown. It was perhaps introduced by
Apostle Paul or one of his companions. By the end of the 1st century the city already hosted a small Christian community, Smyrna was also the place of martyrdom of Saint
Pionius, during the reign of
Decius. Already from the
early Christian years Smyrna was an
autocephalous archbishopric as part of the wider
Metropolis of Ephesus. During the 9th century the local archbishopric was promoted to a metropolis. At the time of its promotion, the diocese of Smyrna held the 39th position in the
Notitiae Episcopatuum, while during the reign of Emperor
Leo VI (886–912) it held the 44th position. In the 13th century, the city thrived under the
Empire of Nicaea, while several churches and monasteries were erected, the most notable of them being the Lembon monastery. During the 14th century, the Turkish raids and eventual capture of the city caused the local Church to decline and its territory to shrink. As a result, at the end of that century only the bishoprics of Phocaea and
Magnesia were under the jurisdiction of the metropolis. Moreover, there are no surviving records of a local metropolitan after 1389. In December 1402 Smyrna was razed by the army of
Timur. However, it appears that the Christian community survived the devastation of the city. After the Ottoman conquest of Smyrna, it appears that the local Christians enjoyed a special status, contrary to several adjacent metropolises that became inactive, Thus, although Christianity in Anatolia was in steady decline during that period, the diocese of Smyrna survived, even in a restricted area of jurisdiction and managed to retain its status as a metropolis of the Orthodox Church. Orthodox Christianity in Smyrna ended as a result of the
Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. In September 1922, during the events of the
Great Fire of Smyrna, thousands of civilians lost their lives and the survivors found refuge in Greece. It is estimated that of a total of 459 priests and bishops of the metropolis of Smyrna, 347 of them were murdered by the Turkish army. Among them was also the metropolitan, Chrysostomos.
Since 2016 In the mid-2010s, several Greek churches in İzmir were renovated by the municipal authorities and opened for occasional service. On 29 August 2016, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople elected the elder Bartholomew Samaras as Metropolitan of Smyrna. ==Religious monuments==