JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND ECOLOGY, cilt.18, sa.3, ss.1038-1049, 2017 (SCI-Expanded)
In time, the expectations of tourists have moved away from the triangle of 'sea, sand and sun' to getting to know different cultures other than their normal life. Accordingly, culture tourism has started to serve the purposes of sustainable tourism much more. One of the tools expressing sustainable culture tourism is 'architecture'. The sustainability of architecture, which is an important source of culture, is possible through the execution of protection and restoration work. Various studies have been started in Turkey, which possesses an important part of world cultural heritage, in order to achieve sustainability of cultural heritage in accordance with protection-use-sustenance principles. Sille, which has been selected in this context, an important tourism corridor for Konya, is an important historical settlement where culture tourism has developed in the recent years. In this context, Hagia Eleni church was restored as a museum and opened for use with the 'Loyalty to History' Project by Konya Selcuklu Municipality. In this way, it was intended to achieve sustainability of the building by enlivening culture tourism. In this study, the sustainable development created by Hagia Eleni church on the tourism potential at the region through this process is going to be addressed.