Where Was the First Council of Nicea?

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The Nicene Creed, which defines the Christian faith, was adopted at the church’s first ecumenical council in 325 CE. This meeting took place in Nicea—modern İznik in Turkey—but the exact location of the proceedings has never been found. Explore how archaeology may finally reveal where the highest church representatives met 1,700 years ago to settle the faith’s early theological disputes.

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Footnotes

1. Mustafa Şahin and Mark R. Fairchild, “Nicea’s Underwater Basilica,” BAR, November/December 2018.

Endnotes

1. For a fuller treatment of the evidence, see Mark R. Fairchild, The Underwater Basilica of Nicaea: Archeology in the Birthplace of Christian Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2024).

2. Once the wooden church was replaced with the masonry basilica, much of the wood was reused on structures elsewhere or used as firewood. Most of the nails would have been extracted and used elsewhere.

3. Michael Attaleiates, The History, Anthony Kaldellis and Dimitris Krallis, trans. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2012), pp. 165–167.