In ancient times, today's Harbiye was called with the name "Daphne" and was the summer residence of the rich and the famous people  of Antakya.

The church is founded in a cave that can be entered through a portal built in the Crusader era, in which the apostle Peter is said to have formed the first community of people who were called Christians, a few years after the death of Jesus.

The village Mağaracık, the modern successor settlement of the ancient port city of Seleucia Pieria, lays in about 7 km northwest of Samandağ.