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
Windows, which below and above are sixteen in Number, do very much
enlighten this second or Middle Gallery. The Front of this Gallery,
facing the Church, is beautified with six Pillars of green Marble. The
_Intercolumniations_ of them, like those of the first Gallery, have
their Marble _Closures_ at Bottom. From this middle Gallery you pass
through an Arch into the third Gallery, which is much like the first
in its Length, Windows, Jambs and Pillars. The Roof of it is supported
with four Pillars, and the Side of it towards the Church with six green
Pillars. There are also four green Marble Pillars which support one
of the Western _Semi-domes_ which stands between two other Pillars.
These Pillars stand two and two together, and between them are rais’d
two lesser Pillars, made after the _Ionic_ Order. At the Western Door
of the Church there are instead of a _Vestibulum_, two _Portico’s_,
the lower of which lies upon a Level with the Church itself. The upper
leads to the Womens Galleries. Both of them in Length the Wideness of
the Church, and twenty eight Foot in Breadth. The _Portico_ over it is
situate between the Pillars which support the Western _Semi-dome_ and
the Windows. For both in the Inside and Outside of it, ’tis supported
with eight Pillars, between which, the Windows both in the upper and
lower Galleries, cast a great Light into the Church. There is nothing
parts this _Portico_ and the Womens Galleries, but the Pillars which
bear up the Roof of the _Portico_; for the Pavement of the _Portico_
lies upon the same Level with the Pavement of the Galleries. The Inside
of the lower _Portico_ is enclosed with Walls, which are lined with
a delectable Variety of Marble, and is cover’d at Top with curious
_Moresco Mosaick_ Work, very beautifully gilded. On the East Side
the _Portico_ are Doors which open into the Church; on the West End
of it you go out at five Brass folding Doors into a _Portico_ that
stands without the Church, and from thence you pass into a Court,
where there are several Springs constantly running, to which there is
a very deep Descent by many Steps. At the Ends of these _Portico’s_
there are two Places of Entrance into the Church, one on the Northern
Side of it, and another with six folding Doors on the South. These
Doors formerly were all of Brass, at present three only of them are
so, but curiously wrought. The Church has also two folding Doors on
the East Side of it. There are also some Doors in the Sides of it,
which were formerly open’d, but are now kept shut. The Inside of the
Church is very light, by reason of the Multitude of Windows about it.
The high Wall, which between the great Arches and the _Cupola_ is of
a circular Figure, let in the Light at forty Windows. The Walls under
the Arches are enlighten’d with twenty six Windows, the Middle of the
Galleries with thirty two, and the Ends of them with more than twenty.
I shall take no Notice of the Lights of the two Western and the four
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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