Bebekli Kilise (Saint Paul Church)

Bebekli Kilise — the Church with the Baby — is a Roman Catholic church erected in 1870 by the Jesuit Order on the edge of the Tepebağ historic district in Adana's Seyhan neighbourhood, near 5 Ocak Square on Cemal Gürsel Caddesi. Its popular name derives from a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary placed on the pediment, which 19th-century Adana residents interpreted as a woman carrying an infant, and the affectionate nickname stuck long after most observers recognised the figure as a traditional Marian devotional image. The church was built to serve the small Catholic community present in Adana during the late Ottoman period, at a time when European religious orders were establishing educational and spiritual institutions across the Levant. Constructed in a modest Neo-Gothic style with a single bell tower, pointed arch windows and a plastered stone façade, it is small in scale but represents one of the very few 19th-century Christian ecclesiastical buildings to survive intact in central Adana. The interior retains its original wooden pews, stained glass windows in the nave, and a painted altar composition typical of Levantine Catholic churches of the period. Mass is still celebrated regularly, making it an active place of worship rather than a museum. Non-Catholic visitors are welcome outside Mass times to view the interior quietly and photograph the bronze Madonna on the façade. A visit takes 15 to 30 minutes, and the church combines naturally with a walk through the surrounding Tepebağ historic district, the nearby Atatürk Museum and the Seyhan Caddesi.