Churches

The pre-Constantinian city was largely pagan and seemingly had few churches. By 430, fourteen were recorded. In the fifth century, several large basilicas were built and Justinian (527-65), Prokopios maintains, built or restored some twenty churches. Basil I (867-86) undertook a similar campaign of restoration and building; as many as one hundred, according to his Vita, From the twelfth century the imperial family and the aristocracy tended to build churches attached to monasteries. There are some 500 churches of all uses known from texts (Janin 1969: xi-xiii), but the following is limited to the most significant of those that still stand in some form. For references for churches and monasteries (below), see Van Millingen 1912; Ebersolt and Thiers 1913; and Janin 1969. Extensive bibliography can be found in Muller-Wiener 1977. For photographs, see Mathews 1976.

Byzantion had a small church, which was rebuilt and enlarged by Constantine by 337, known then as the Old Church or Hagia Eirene (Aya irini). Having burned down in 532, it was rebuilt again and enlarged by Justinian in the form of a dome surmounting a basilica (Peschlow 1977). It was damaged in 740 by an earthquake and reconstructed in part, probably in the reign of Constantine V (741-75), and is noted for its simple mosaic cross on a gold ground in the apse. Little other decoration remains.

Constantine also built his own mausoleum, Holy Apostles, just within the city wall a little north of the northerly branch of the Mese. According to Eusebios, it also served as a memorial to the apostles, with Constantine designating himself the thirteenth apostle (Epstein 1982). Constantins added a cruciform basilica, which was rebuilt by Justinian in 550 with an additional mausoleum and restored and decorated with mosaics by Basil L It was briefly the seat of the Patriarchate post-1453, then destroyed and is now the site of the Fatih Camii.

Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofia), at first referred to as the Great Church {Megale Ekkle-sia)y was completed initially under Constantins in 360 as a timber-roofed basilica and C.430 became known as Hagia Sophia (Whittemore 1933-52; Mango 1962; Van Nice 1965-86; Cormack and Hawkins 1977; Mainstone 1988). It was burned in 404 in a riot concerning John Chrysostom and rebuilt by Theodosios II by 415. Fragments of a colonnaded porch have been excavated (Schneider 1941). The Theodosian basilica was destroyed in the Nika Riot in 532, directly rebuilt by Justinian under the direction of Anthemios of Tralles and Isidore of Miletos, and completed by 537 (Prok. Buildings 1.1. 21-78). Designed as a radically ambitious domed basilica, with the dome measuring 31 m across and the basilica largely square in shape measuring 78 X 72 m, it is divided into the nave and two aisles by arcades to north and south and with a gallery on three sides. The Justinianic marble revetments remain and the mosaic decoration, which appears to have been entirely non-figural, survives in

Fig. 3 Interior of Hagia Sophia in the mid-19th century (Fossati)

The narthex and aisles. Post-iconoclastic mosaics feature the Virgin and Child in the apse, two archangels in the bema arch, prophets and church fathers in the tympana, an enthroned Christ in the narthex, and imperial portraits and a Deesis in the south gallery. The dome was repaired and heightened in 558, the dome and west arch were repaired in 989 following an earthquake and the dome and east arch restructured by 1353; the buttresses were added in 1317.

The Church of the Theotokos at Chalkoprateia (copper market) is said to have been founded by Pulcheria (399-453), sister of Theodosios II, and restored by Verina (d. 484), wife of Leo I, and today the apse and parts of the north and south walls of the basilical church remain on its site to the west of Hagia Sophia (Mango 1969-70: 369-72). The building was restored by both Justin II (565-78) and Basil I (867-86) and housed the famed Virgins girdle and an icon of Christ Antiphonetes.

The Church of the Virgin Mary at Blachernai was founded by the empress Verina in 468-70 and housed the maphorion, the ‘honourable robe’ of the Virgin. The church was rebuilt in 1070 after a fire, but destroyed again by fire in 1434.

The church of St Euphemia at the Hippodrome was identified in 1939 by the finding of frescoes showing the saint’s life on the ruined walls of the church. It appears that a part of the fifth-century palace of Antiochos was converted into a church in the sixth century. A sanctuary in the east was added to the hexagonal form of niches.

The Church of Sts Sergios and Bakchos (Kiicuk Ayasofya Camii) is situated near the sea wall, formerly in the Palace of the Hormisdas and adjacent to a now lost church dedicated to Sts Peter and Paul (Mathews 1971: 42-51). Built by Justinian and Theodora, its date has recently been suggested as 530-6, though an earlier date has also been proposed (Mango 1975; Bardill 2000). According to Mango, it was built for Syrian Monophysite monks. An inscription on the architrave records the dedication. The design is an imaginative, octagonal, double-storeyed arcade supporting an innovative pumpkin dome set within a rectangle, which is irregular due to the pre-existing buildings formerly on either side.

The Church of St Polyeuktos was built by the wealthy aristocrat Anicia Juliana, probably between 524 and 527, near her palace. It was known from a text, which adorned the exterior and interior of the church {Anth, Gr, 1.16) and describes her patronage and the relation of the building to the temple of Solomon. Parts of the inscription were found in i960 (now in the Archaeological Museum), which led to an excavation of the site by Martin Harrison (Harrison 1986). This revealed the substructure of the building and allowed a reconstruction of the church, which had large exedrae bordering the nave, decorated with peacocks and the inscription. Recent work suggests that it had a conventional flat roof (Bardill 2006). The church appears to have been in disrepair by 1204, and the ‘Pilastri Acritani’ standing outside San Marco in Venice along with capitals were taken from the site.

The Nea Ekklesia, located within the Great Palace precinct, was completed by 880 by Basil I with five domes and highly decorated, as described in the Vita Basilii (Ebersolt 1910:130-5; Magdalino 1987).

A church which may have been dedicated to the Virgin Kyriotissa (Kalenderhane Camii) is located adjacent to the east end of the Aqueduct of Valens. Excavations revealed a fourth - or fifth-century bath beneath the sixth-century east end of the church with the remaining cross-domed building dating to the late twelfth century (Striker and Kuban 1967, 1968, 1971, 1975, 1997). It is decorated with marble revetment in the lower areas and relief sculpture. A seventh-century mosaic of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and wall-paintings, found in a chapel to the south-east, dated to c.1250 during the Latin occupation and showing the life of St Francis, are in the Archaeological Museum. The dedication has been suggested by a painting of the Virgin Kyriotissa discovered over the door of the narthex.