The first monastery in Constantinople dates to the fourth century but by the beginning of the sixth, there appear to have been over seventy, and Janin estimates that possibly 345 different ones existed in the capital and suburbs during the Byzantine period and that eighteen were still operating in 1453 (Janin 1969: xiii-xiv). Janin provides an exhaustive list, and the following is limited, with one exception, to the most important that still survive in some form.
The walls, an arcade, and parts of the narthex of the church of the monastery of St John the Baptist of Stoudios (Imrahor Camii) still stand, situated east of the Golden Gate. The church was begun in 453/4, and the monastery was built shortly after by the Roman Patrician Stoudios. It is basilical in form, with a polygonal apse, a crypt, narthex, and atrium. The narthex has an elaborate entablature and Corinthian capitals; of the three-part nave, six verd-antique columns survive of the northern arcade, which originally had two storeys. Parts of the opus sectile floor remain. The abbot Theodore of Stoudios (798-826) strongly defended the iconophile cause, and the monastery became a centre of art and scholarship. It was converted to a mosque towards the end of the fifteenth century and suffered severe earthquake damage in 1894.
The Hodegon monastery was positioned east of Hagia Sophia on the seaward slope, and the church, said to be founded by Pulcheria, later contained the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, a portrait by tradition painted by St Luke. The monastery’s name (‘of Guides’) seems to have derived from the monks who led blind pilgrims to a miraculous spring. The monastery was functional by the ninth century, probably built by Michael III, and restored in the twelfth century. It later had a prestigious scriptorium and was used by the Palaiologan emperors.
The monastery of Myrelaion (Bodrum Camii) was founded c.920 as a nunnery by Romanos I Lekapenos (920-44). It combines a cross-in-square church built over a lower storey and adjacent to a mansion constructed over a fifth-century rotunda (Striker 1981). It was used for burials and later converted to a mosque towards the end of the fifteenth century.
The Lips monastery (Fenari Isa Camii) is situated in the valley of the Lykos near the site of the Church of the Holy Apostles and was probably restored by Constantine Lips (Macridy 1964). The main church, dedicated to the Virgin, was purportedly inaugurated in 908 (Mango and Hawkins 1964). The patron is suggested by an inscription (Van Millingen 1912:131). The church is a cross-in square (the columns have been replaced by arches) with roof chapels and retains fine relief sculpture. Theodora, following the death of her husband, Michael VIII (1259-82), further restored the monastery, and she built a second church as a mausoleum, adjacent to the south and dedicated to St John the Baptist. At this time the monastery, whose Typikon survives, was used by nuns and had a hospital.
Of the Pantokrator monastery (Zeyrek Camii), located overlooking the Golden Horn, the two churches with a chapel between them survive (Megaw 1963; Ouster-hout and others 2000; Ousterhout 2001). The monastery and south church, dedicated to the Pantokrator, were founded by Eirene, the wife of John II (1118-43), in 1120. After her death in 1124, John erected a church to the north, dedicated to the Virgin Eleousa and, finally, a funerary chapel joining the two buildings, dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Eirene, John, and their son Manuel (whose tomb lay behind the slab on which Christ was said to be laid when taken from the cross) were buried there, as were Manuel II and John VIII in the fifteenth century. The churches are both cross-in-square in form; the south church still has its extensive opus sectile floor and the north has some examples of relief sculpture. The monastery was very extensive and included a hospice, hospital, and insane asylum. During the Latin occupation (1204-61), the monastery was under Venetian control and was burned in 1261, but then rebuilt.
The Church of St Saviour in Chora (Kariye Camii), a monastic church, lies to the north-west, near the land wall and is renowned for its mosaics and paintings created during its restoration between 1316 and 1321 by Theodore Metochites (Underwood 1966-75; Ousterhout 1987). Its origins are unclear. The monastery was restored by both Maria Doukaina, Alexios Ts mother-in-law, and by her grandson Isaac Komnenos, when the church took the form of an atrophied Greek-cross. The dome, narthexes, and the parekklesion to the south of the church were rebuilt under Metochites. The outer narthex was decorated with mosaics depicting Christ's birth and ministry and the inner narthex with scenes from the apocryphal life of the Virgin as well as a dedicatory portrait of Metochites with Christ, and a Deesis with Isaac Komnenos and a nun named Melanie. Mosaics of the Koimesis of the Virgin, of Christ, and of the Virgin and Child remain in the nave. The parekklesion is painted with a striking Anastasis in the apse, the Last Judgement in the vault, and various saints and biblical scenes as well as funerary portraits. The church became a mosque in the early sixteenth century and is now a museum.
The Church of the Theotokos Pammakaristos (the Joyous Mother of God) (Fethiye Camii) lies to the south-east of the Chora monastery (Belting, Mango, and Mouriki 1978). Also associated with a monastery, it was founded in the twelfth century by a John Komnenos and his wife Maria Doukaina and rebuilt towards the end of the thirteenth century by the general Michael Tarchaneiotes Glabas. After his death in about 1305, his widow, Maria, built a fom-columned parekklesion with a two-storeyed narthex to the south as his funerary chapel and decorated it with very fine mosaics, of which parts survive. Between c.1455 and 1587, the site was the seat of the Patriarchate and then became a mosque. The church has been largely altered to serve as a mosque; the parekklesion has been restored as a museum.
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