Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Part 35

_The original plan of the church_ (Fig. 102). The greater part of the alterations made in the church date from Byzantine times, and the marble coverings then placed upon the walls have effectually covered up any traces which might have given a clue to the original form of the building. In consequence any attempt at restoration must be of a very tentative character.

It is evident that there has been a serious movement in the structure due to the weight of the dome and the thrust of the dome arches, for the walls below the dome are bent outwards in a very p.r.o.nounced manner. It was in order to check this movement that the flying b.u.t.tress was applied to the apse, and in all probability the enormous thickness of the walls surrounding the central cross is due to the same cause. Had the walls originally been as thick as at present it is hard to imagine that movement could have taken place.

The axial line from east to west, pa.s.sing through the doors of both narthexes, divides the present building into two dissimilar parts. We know that the parecclesion is a later addition, and if it be removed and the plan of the north side repeated to the south the resulting plan bears a striking resemblance to S. Sophia at Salonica (Fig. 101). The position of the prothesis and diaconicon in particular is identical in the two churches.

Some proof that this was the original form of the building is given by the small chamber in the wall thickness between the church and the parecclesion. For it corresponds to the angle of the south 'aisle,' and on its west wall is a vertical break in the masonry which may be the jamb of the old door to the narthex.

This plan gives a narthex in five bays--the three centre ones low, the two outer covered by domes and leading to the 'aisles.' When the parecclesion was added, the south gallery and two bays of the inner narthex were swept away. The third door leading into the church was built up, and the present large domed bay added to the shortened narthex.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 101.--S. SOPHIA, SALONICA.]

Traces of the older structure remain in the wall between the church and the parecclesion. The s.p.a.ce already described, which originally opened from the pa.s.sage at the higher level to the south cross-arm, corresponds in width both to the window above and to the s.p.a.ce occupied by the doors below. At S. Sophia, Salonica, the side-arms are filled in with arcades in two stories forming an aisle and gallery. This is the normal domed basilica construction. Here, if we regard the floor of the upper pa.s.sage (B on plan, p. 318) as the remains of the old gallery floor,--and no other view seems to account for its existence,--the internal elevation was in three stories, an aisle at the ground level, above it a gallery, and above that, in the arch tympanum, a triple window. Such an arrangement is, so far as we know, unique in a small church, but it is the arrangement used in S. Sophia, Constantinople, and may well have been derived from that church. The opening is only about one-half of the s.p.a.ce, leaving a broad pier at each side. In this it differs from S.

Sophia, Salonica, but such side piers are present in S. Sophia, Constantinople. The diagrams show a restoration of the plan and internal bay based on these conclusions (Figs. 102, 103).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 102.--S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA (restored plan).]

The gallery on the north side is an addition. The character of the brickwork and of the windows is later than the central church, but the lack of windows on the ground floor suggests that the 'aisle' was originally lighted from the body of the church. The vaulting gives no clue, nor are there traces of an opening in the wall between the 'aisle'

and the church. The floor level is much higher than that of the pa.s.sage 'B' (p. 318) on the opposite side, and seems to be a new level introduced when the addition was made and the wall thickened.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.xVIII.

S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA. EAST END OF THE PARECCLESION.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA. CAPITAL AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE PARECCLESION.

_To face page 314._]

If these conclusions are correct the church was originally a domed basilica resembling S. Sophia, Salonica, in plan and S. Sophia, Constantinople, in elevation. The side dome arches had double arcades in two stories, and above them windows in the dome arches. There are at present no traces of a western gallery, but such may have existed below the present west windows. Later in the history of the church came alterations, which included the ribbed domes and the gallery on the north side. The side aisles still communicated with the church and the lateral chapels with the bema.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 103.--S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA (restored bay).]

The filling up of the arcades, the thickening of the walls, the isolation of the lateral chapels, the removal of the southern aisle, the alteration of the narthex, the building of the parecclesion and outer narthex, and most of the decoration which forms the glory of the church, belong to the great work of restoration by Theodore Metochites early in the fourteenth century.

The representation of the church in the mosaic panel above the large door to the church shows a building with a central dome, a narthex terminating in domed bays, and a window in the west dome arch. It seems to represent the church as the artist was accustomed to see it previous to the additions (Fig. 115).

Plain cross plans, or cross plans with only one lateral gallery, are not unknown. The church of the Archangels, Syge,[541] shows such a plan and is here reproduced for purposes of comparison.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.xIX.

S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA. THE PARECCLESION, LOOKING SOUTH-EAST.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA. THE PARECCLESION, LOOKING WEST.

_To face page 316._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 104.--CHURCH OF THE ARCHANGELS AT SYGe.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 105.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 106 AND 107.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 108 AND 109.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 110, 111, 112, AND 113.]

[501] Vol. i. p. 459.

[502] Synax., Sept. 4, [Greek: pistoi de tines eusebeis nyktos elthontes kai ta leipsana en akatio embalontes eis to Byzantion diakomizousi kai en to boreio merei exo teicheon en trisi larnaxi katathentes, entha esti mone Chora eponomazomene, doxan kai eucharistian to Theo anepempsan].

[503] _Proceedings of the Greek Syllogos_ of C.P. vol. xxiv., 1896, Supplement, p. 33.

[504] Vol. iii. p. 172.

[505] P. 36.

[506] Paspates, p. 326.

[507] Synax., Sept. 4.

[508] Banduri, iii. p. 54, [Greek: chorion en ekeise exo tou Byzantiou.]

[509] De aed. p. 121, [Greek: eklethe de chora dioti ton Byzantion chorion en ekei, katha kai he tou Stoudiou mone, exo tes poleos hyperchen.]

[510] Written in the second quarter of the ninth century.

[511] Supplement to vol. xxiv. of the _Proceedings of the Greek Syllogos of C.P._ p. 23. Cf. Schmitt, p. 28.

[512] In his great monograph on Kahrie Jamissi published by the Russian Inst.i.tute of Constantinople, 1906.

[513] Mansi, _Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio_, tomus viii. col. 906, col. 882, [Greek: tou hagiou Michael ton Charisiou: tes epiklen ton Charisiou].

[514] Banduri, iii. p. 54; Codinus. De aed. p. 121 [Greek: he chora proton men eukterion en, Priskos ho eparchos kai gambros tou Phoka tou tyrannou perioristheis ekei para tou idiou ektise tauten monen eis kallos kai megethos, apocharisamenos kai ktemata polla].

[515] Niceph. Greg. iii. p. 459.

[516] Schmitt, p. 28.

[517] Theoph. pp. 554, 556; Synax. _ad diem_; Cedrenus, i. p. 784.

[518] Theoph. pp. 626-680; Synax., May 12.

[519] Theoph. pp. 647-8.

[520] _Life of Michael Syncellus_, p. 31, in supplement to vol. xxiv.

of the _Proceedings of the Greek Syllogos of C.P._; cf. Schmitt, p.

251.

[521] _Life of Michael Syncellus_, _ut supra_, pp. 30, 31.

[522] See supplement to vol. xxiv. of the _Proceedings of the Greek Syllogos of Constantinople_, p. 33; cf. Schmitt, pp. 257-8.