Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture
John Stuart Mill · en
After serving that purpose it
was converted into a mosque later in the reign of the conqueror.
[Illustration: PLATE LVII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTEPOPTES. DOOR LEADING FROM THE OUTER TO
THE INNER NARTHEX. VIEW LOOKING NORTH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTEPOPTES. THE DOME, LOOKING WEST.]
_To face page 212._
[Illustration: FIG. 72.]
_Architectural Features_
In plan the church belongs to the 'four column' type, and has two
narthexes. The dome, placed on a drum, circular within and twelve-sided
without, is carried on four piers which the Turks have reduced to an
irregular octagonal form. It is divided into twelve bays by square ribs,
and is lighted by twelve semicircular-headed windows. The cornice-string
is adorned with a running leaf spray of a pleasing and uncommon design.
The arms of the cross have barrel vaults, while the chambers at its
angles are covered with cross-groined vaults. The apsidal chambers are
small, with shallow niches on the north, south, and west, and a somewhat
deeper niche on the east where the apse stands. These niches are carried
up through a vaulting string-course, carved with a repeating leaf
ornament, and combine with the groined vault above them to produce a
charming canopy. The southern transept gable, though much built up,
still displays the design which occurs so frequently in Byzantine
churches, namely, three windows in the lunette of the arch (the central
light rising higher than the sidelights), and three stilted arches below
the vaulting string-course, resting on two columns and containing three
windows which are carried down to a breastwork of carved marble slabs
between the columns. The floor of the church is paved with square red
bricks, except in the apses, where marble is employed. The gynecaeum,
above the inner narthex, is divided into three bays separated by broad
transverse arches. The central bay, which is larger than its companions,
is covered with a dome vault, and looks into the body of the church
through a fine triple arcade in the lunette of the western arm of the
cross. The smaller bays are covered with cross-groined vaults. As
elsewhere, the vaulting-string in the gynecaeum is decorated with carved
work. The inner narthex, like the gynecaeum above it, is divided into
three bays covered with cross-groined vaults, and communicates with the
church, as usual, by three doors. Its walls seem to have been formerly
revetted with marble. In the northern wall is a door, now closed, which
gave access to a building beyond that side of the church. The exonarthex
is also divided in three bays, separated by transverse arches, and
communicates with the inner narthex by three doors and with the outer
world by a single door situated in the central bay. That bay has a low
dome without windows, while the lateral bays have groined vaults.
Turkish repairs show in the pilasters and the pointed arches which
support the original transverse arches. The doors throughout the