Constantinople: The Story of the Old Capital of the EmpireHutton, William Holden
History
Constantinople: The Story of the Old Capital of the Empire
Hutton, William Holden
Istanbul (Turkey)
There are many other churches which should be visited. Of the mediæval
example the most interesting are the church of S. Thekla, S. Mary
Pammakaristos, S. Theodosia (mentioned above, p. 62), the
Pantokrator, SS. Peter and Mark, and the little village church of S.
Mary at the Fountain. Of this last more hereafter. S. Mary
Pammakaristos was built by the sister of Alexius Comnenus early in the
twelfth century. It stands on the hill overlooking the Phanar. Its
design is unlike any other building in the city. The main dome rests
on a drum supported by four arches, these again on another drum and
other arches. There are narthex and outer narthex and a number of
subsidiary chapels, divided from the central chapel by columns of
different sizes and shapes. In the south-east chapel there is still a
splendid mosaic of Christ blessing the apostles. The tomb of Alexius
Comnenus and his famous daughter Anna were here, but they were
destroyed when Murad III. turned the church into a mosque. From 1456
to 1586 it was the patriarchal church. A legend attaches to it which
declares that the patriarch Jeremiah I. preserved it, and all other
churches then remaining, by producing Moslem witnesses before
Suleiman, that the city was really surrendered by capitulation, and
that the churches were guaranteed to the Christians. Two aged Moslems
were brought from Adrianople and their oath was accepted, a strange
story of lying in which neither faith seems to be established by the
truthfulness of its believers.
S. Theodosia, called "the rose mosque" for the horrible tragedy which
marked its last day as a Christian church, is within the Aya Kapou,
the Porta Divae Theodosiæ which was named after it. S. Theodosia was
the first martyr, under Leo the Isaurian, of the iconoclastic
persecutions, and her name was held in special veneration by the
ladies of Constantinople. Her festival is on May 29; and in 1453 when
the city was captured the church was crowded with worshippers, many of
whom had spent the whole night there in prayer. Before midday the
doors were broken down and the sipahis poured in. Over the walls
clustered roses then in bloom, and, within, the columns were wreathed
with them. The picture of the ladies seized and carried off into
slavery lingered in the verses of Turkish poets, and when the church
became a mosque its name was that of the rose, Güil Djami.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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