The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That CityGilles, Pierre
History
The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That City
Gilles, Pierre
Istanbul (Turkey) -- Antiquities; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Antiquities
the Pavement to the Bottom of the Curvature of the upper Galleries,
’tis of a square Figure, but as contracted within the Enclosure of
the four large and the four smaller Pillars, as far as the Curvature
of the four Arches of the _Dome_, it is entirely of an oval Form. The
Form of the Galleries is as follows: On three Sides of them they are
built in a square Manner: The fourth Side of them, which looks into
the Church, is of an oval Figure, as is the Church itself. The Roofs
of these Galleries are supported with Arches and Columns. I shall
give the Reader a Description of three of them, by which means he may
easily form a Judgment of the rest, for they are all of one Form.
Those I shall take Notice of, are the three upper Galleries on the
North Side of the Church. The first of these Galleries has two Fronts,
and looks both Eastward and Northward. The two Sides of this Gallery
rise from the Wall of the Church, and end in an Arch. In the Middle
of each Side of it there are three square Columns five Foot and nine
Inches in Circumference, which are made the Jambs of the Windows. These
Pillars support three other square Pillars, which are all made of
blue and white Marble. The Side which faces the Body of the Church is
adorn’d with six Pillars of green Marble, standing below the Arch which
supports an Eastern _Semi-dome_, whose Shafts at the Bottom of them
are seven Foot and eight Digits in Compass. The _Intercolumniations_
of these Pillars being little less than seven Foot and eleven Digits
wide, are strengthen’d with Marble _Closures_ which are four Foot
high, so that those who lean upon them, have a full View of all the
upper and lower Part of the Church. That Side which parts the first
and second Gallery, reaching from the outward Wall Northward, to the
great Pillar which supports the _Dome_, is forty four Foot in Length,
part of which is adorn’d with Pillars, and an Arch which supports the
_Dome_. You pass through this into the second Gallery, the Breadth of
which is twenty four Foot, and it is made up of the Arch of a Pillar,
and a Wall which is a part of one of the Wings of the Church, and
extends itself as far as the Roof of the _Dome_. This Gallery, at both
Ends of it, is born up by Arches and Walls. In the Middle of it, it
is supported by four white Pillars speckled with blue, the Shafts of
which are seven Foot in Compass. ’Tis of a square Figure, and, as I
observ’d, bears upon Arches and Walls. These Arches, at one End of
them, rise behind two of the large Pillars which support the _Dome_;
at the other End they bear upon Pillars which rise within Side of the
Walls, and support the four large Pillars. The outer Side of this
Gallery is supported with eight square Pillars, which are six Foot in
Compass. There rises in the Middle of them a Pillar of a larger Size.
These Pillars are instead of Jambs for the Windows; and above them
there are other Pillars, which are also Jambs to other Windows. These
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