MOLLA ZEYREK MOSQUE

Zeyrek, Fatih - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°01'11.0"N 28°57'26.0"E / 41.019722, 28.957222



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The complex is placed in Fazilet Sokağı, in the district of Fatih, in a popular neighborhood which got its name (Zeyrek) from the Mosque, and less than one km to the southeast of Eski Imaret Mosque. Zeyrek Mosque (full name in Turkish: Molla Zeyrek Camii), is a mosque in Istanbul, made of two former Eastern Orthodox churches and a chapel.

It represents the most typical example of architecture of the Byzantine middle period in Constantinople and is, after Hagia Sophia, the second largest religious edifice built by the Byzantines remaining in Istanbul.

The monastery complex was first converted to a madrasa (religious school) and named after Molla Zeyrek Efendi, who was assigned chief scholar of this school. After the completion of the Medreses in the Fatih complex in 1471, the students abandoned Zeyrek, and as several madrasas were built following the construction of the nearby Fatih Mosque complex, the Zeyrek medrese was closed and the building converted to a mosque.

Converted to a mosque after temporary use as a madrasa after the Ottoman takeover, the church was named "Zeyrek" after Molla Zeyrek Mehmed Efendi, a resident of the neighborhood who taught at the madrasa. The mosque, repaired after a fire in mid 18th century, fell into disrepair by the 1950s. The library of the monastery burnt in 1934. The building was again ruined during the 1950s but was restored by the Directorate of Religious Endowments in 1966. The northern church and its narthex were restored by the Ministry of Religious Endowments in 1966-67

Until a few years ago, the edifice was in a desolate state, and as a result it was added to the UNESCO watchlist of endangered monuments. During the recent years it underwent extensive (albeit still unfinished) restoration. To the East lies the Ottoman Konak (Zeyrek Hane), which has also been restored and is now open as a restaurant and tea garden. Right next to Zeyrek Mosque is also the Zeyrekhane restaurant, where you can enjoy a perfect İstanbul sunset while enjoying one of your favorite beverages.The Zeyrek Church Mosque was included in the annual list of the World Monuments Watch "100 Most Endangered Sites" in 2002.

The masonry has been partly built adopting the technique of the recessed brick, typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period. In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar's bed. Due to that, the thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the bricks layers.

The south and the north church are both cross domed with polygonal apses having seven sides, and not five as was typical in the Byzantine architecture of the previous century. The apses have also triple lancet windows flanked by niches. The southern church is the largest. To the East it has an esonarthex, which later was extended up to the imperial chapel. The church is surmounted by two domes, one over the naos and the other over the matroneum (a separate upper gallery for women) of the narthex.

The decoration of this church, which was very rich, disappeared almost completely, except for some fragments of marble in the presbyterium and, above all, a beautiful floor in opus sectile made with colored marbles worked in cloisonné technique, where human and animal figures are represented. Moreover, fragments of colored glass suggest that the windows of this church were once made of stained glass bearing figures of Saints. The mosaics of the interior, representing the apostles and the life of Christ, were still visible - although defaced - in the 18th century.

The imperial chapel is covered by barrel vaults and is surmounted by two domes too. The north church has only one dome, and is notable for its frieze, carved with a dog's tooth and triangle motif running along the eaves line. Close to the Mosque is placed the small Şeyh Süleyman Mescidi, a small byzantine building belonging also to the Pantokrator Monastery. As a whole, this complex represents the most typical example of architecture of the Byzantine middle period in Constantinople.

As it stands the Pantokrator is a combination of three churches, placed side by side, and communicating with one another through arched openings in their common walls. The three buildings are not of the same date, and opinions differ in regard to their relative age. On the whole, however, the northern church may be safely considered the earliest structure; the central church is somewhat later; the southern church is the latest.

Byzantine Period
Between 1118 and 1124 Byzantine Empress Eirene Komnena built a monastery on this site dedicated to Christ Pantokrator. The monastery consisted of a main church (which became the Katholikon of the monastery) also dedicated to the Pantokrator, a library and a hospital. After the death of his wife, shortly after 1124, Emperor John II Komnenos built another church to the north of the first dedicated to the Theotokos Eleousa "the merciful". This church was open to the population and served by a lay clergy.

Finally (the terminus ante quem is 1136) a south courtyard and an exonarthex were added to the complex, and the two shrines were connected with a chapel (dedicated to Saint Michael), which became the imperial mausoleum (heroon) of the Komnenos and Palaiologos dynasties. Besides many Byzantine dignitaries, Emperor John II and his wife Eirene, Empress Bertha of Sulzbach (also known as Eirene, and wife of Manuel I Komnenos), and Emperor John V Palaiologos were buried here.

During the Latin domination after the Fourth Crusade, the complex was the see of the Venetian clergy, and the icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria was housed here. The monastery was also used as an imperial palace by the last Latin Emperor, Baldwin. After the Palaiologan restoration the monastery was used again by Orthodox monks. The most famous among them was Gennadius II Scholarius, who left the Pantokrator to become the first Patriarch of Constantinople after the Islamic conquest of the city.

Ottoman and Republican Period
Shortly after the Fall of Constantinople the building was converted into a mosque, and the monastery was converted for a while into a Medrese. The Ottomans named it after Molla Zeyrek, a scholar who was teaching there. However, due to its importance in Byzantine history, Zeyrek was one among the few buildings of Istanbul whose ancient denomination was never forgotten. Among others, the church of Pantokrator is remembered by Pierre Gilles in his classic work about Constantinople, written in the sixteenth century. After the completion of the Medreses in the Fatih complex in 1471, the students abandoned Zeyrek, and the rooms of the monastery occupied by the Medrese vanished later.

Archaeological studies by the Byzantine Institute of America in the mid 1950s have revealed floor mosaics of the period. The central church was re-opened for Islamic prayer during this time and the Directorate of Religious Endowments restored the northern church in 1966. The current restoration work, begun in 1997 by Professors Robert Ousterhout, Zeynep Ahunbay and Metin Ahunbay, is funded by the Kress Foundation/World Monuments Fund, University of Illinois Research Fund, Istanbul Technical University and Dumbarton Oaks Project Grants.

The Zeyrek Church Mosque was included in the annual list of the World Monuments Watch "100 Most Endangered Sites" in 2002. During the recent years it underwent extensive (albeit still unfinished) restoration. Today Zeyrek Mosque is - after Hagia Sophia - the second largest extant religious edifice built by the Byzantines in Istanbul. To the East lies the Ottoman Konak (Zeyrek Hane), which has also been restored and is now open as a restaurant and tea garden.

The Northern Church
This is a simple and dignified building of the domed 'four column' type, with a gynaeceum above the narthex. The narthex is in four  bays covered with cross-groined vaults on transverse arches. Its southern bay, however, is a later extension, running about half-way in front of the central church to give access to a door into that building. Only two bays of the original narthex have doors opening into the north church; the third door which once existed in the northern bay has been partly built up.

The narthex is very much out of repair, and the western wall threatens to fall outwards. The dome, pierced by eight windows, shows so many Turkish features that it may be pronounced as mostly, if not wholly, a Turkish construction. The four square piers which support it are manifestly Turkish. When Gyllius visited the church in the sixteenth century the dome arches rested on four columns of Theban granite, 'hemispherium sustentatur quatuor arcubus, quos fulciunt quatuor columnae marmoris Thebaici.

Barrel vaults cover the arms of the cross, which, as usual in churches of this type, appears distinctly above the roof on the exterior. The southern arm extends to the central church and its vault is pierced by two windows, inserted, probably, to compensate for the loss of light occasioned by the erection of that building. These windows furnish one indication of the earlier date of the north church.

The gynaeceum, like the narthex below it, is covered with cross-groined vaults and contains a small fireplace. The prothesis and diaconicon have barrel vaults and apses with three sides projecting slightly on the exterior. The main apse has a very lofty triple window, and shows five sides. All the apses are decorated with high shallow blind niches, a simple but effective ornament.

The Central Church
The central church is an oblong hall covered by two domes, and terminates in a large apse. It is extremely irregular in plan, and does not lie parallel to either of the churches between which it stands. The domes are separated by a transverse arch. The western dome, though flattened somewhat on the four sides, is approximately circular, and divided into sixteen shallow concave compartments, each pierced by a window. Some of these windows must have been always blocked by the roof of the north church.

The eastern dome is a pronounced oval, notwithstanding the attempt to form a square base for it by building a subsidiary arch both on the south and on the north. It is divided into twenty-four concave compartments, twelve of which have windows. The drums of the domes adjoin each other above the transverse arch, so that the central west window of the eastern dome is pierced through to the western dome. The two windows on either side of that window are blind, and must always have been so. The floor in the archway leading into the south church is paved with inlaid marbles forming a beautiful design.

If the whole floor of the church was thus decorated the effect must have been extremely rich. On the exterior the apse shows seven sides, decorated with shallow blind niches. Like the church it is very irregularly set out. The central church probably served as a mausoleum for the tombs of the imperial personages interred at the Pantokrator. In its form and in the arrangement of its domes, as well as in its position on the south of the church to which it strictly belongs, it resembles the parecclesion of S. Saviour in the Chora.

The South Church
The south church is of the same plan as the north church, but is larger and more richly decorated. It has two narthexes, which extend to both the north and south beyond the body of the building. The outer narthex, entered by a single door placed in the centre, is in five bays, covered with cross-groined vaults resting on pilasters. Its floor is paved with large slabs of Proconnesian marble surrounded by a border of red marble.

Five doors lead to the esonarthex - the three central doors being framed in red marble, the other two in verd antique. On either side of the central door is a window also framed in verd antique, the jambs of the windows being cut from old columns, and retaining the circular form on their faces. Over the central door and the windows beside it is a large  arch between two smaller arches - all three, as well as their bracket capitals, now partially built up. There is a door framed in verd antique in each end bay of the narthex. Like the outer narthex the esonarthex is in five bays, and was paved with marble in a similar fashion.

But while its other bays are covered with cross-groined vaults the central bay is open to the gallery above, and is overhung by a drum dome. The gallery was thus divided into two parts by the open central bay, and both gallery and narthex were lighted by the dome. The exterior of this dome is twelve-sided, with flat angle pilasters and level moulded plaster cornice. It has evidently been repaired by the Turks. The inside, however, preserves the Byzantine work. It is in twenty-four concave apartments pierced by twelve windows, of which those facing the west cross arm of the church are blind.

As the original west window still shows from the inside, though built up, it would appear that the gynecaeum dome was added after the completion of the main church. At present the open bay is ceiled by the woodwork that forms the floor of the tribune occupied by the Sultan when he attends worship in the mosque. A door in the northern wall of the north bay communicates with the narthex of the north church, while a door in the eastern wall of the bay gives access to the central church.

Two doors in similar positions in the bay at the south end of the narthex led to buildings which have disappeared. The three doors leading from the narthex into the church are framed in red marble, the other doors in white marble. The main dome of the church is in sixteen compartments, and is pierced by as many windows. Its arches rest on four shafted columns, somewhat Gothic in character, and crowned with capitals distinctly Turkish.

These columns have replaced the columns of porphyry, seven feet in circumference, which Gyllius saw bearing the arches of the dome when he visited the church: 'maximum (tectum) sustentatur quatuor columnis pyrrhopoecilis, quarum perimeter habet septem pedes. The southern wall is lighted by a triple window in the gable and a row of three windows  below the string-course. The northern wall was treated on the same plan, but with the modifications rendered necessary by the union of the church with the earlier central church.

The triple windows in the gable of that wall are therefore almost blocked by the roof of the central church against which it is built; while the three windows below the string-course are blind and are cut short by the arch opening into the central church, as that arch rises higher than the string-course. As explained, the gynaeceum above the inner narthex is divided by the open central bay of that narthex into two compartments, each consisting of two bays.

The bays to the south are narrow, with transverse arches of decidedly elliptical form. A window divided by shafts in three lights, now built up, stood in the bay at the extreme south, and similar windows looked down into the open bay of the narthex from the bays on either hand. The northern compartment of the gynaeceum connects with the gynaeceum of the north church.

In the interior the apse retains a large portion of its revetment of variously coloured marbles, and gives some idea of the original splendour of the decoration. Fragments of fine carving have been built into the pulpit of the mosque, and over it is a Byzantine canopy supported on twin columns looped together, like the twin columns on the façade of S. Mark's at Venice.

The lateral apses are covered with cross-groined vaults, and project in three sides externally, while the central apse shows seven sides. All are lighted by triple windows, and decorated on the exterior with niches, like the other apses in this group of buildings, and those of S. Theodosia. In the brickwork found in the fabric of the Pantokrator, two sizes of brick are employed, a larger and a smaller size laid in alternate courses. The larger bricks look like old material used again.

The stone foundations remain to the south, where a building as large as the northern church was attached to the narthexes. A wooden takiyya (tekke), built on these foundations during Ottoman times, is seen in older photographs along with housing that was built along the southern wall of the churches.

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FETHİYE (PAMMAKARISTOS) MUSEUM

Çarşamba, Fatih - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°01'45.0"N 28°56'47.0"E / 41.029167, 28.946389



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Today, the north church is still used as a mosque. The walls of the additional church are decorated with the best mosaics of the 14th century. It has been repaired during the period between 1938 and 1940 and became an organizational unit of Hagia Sophia Museum. The Museum is opened for visits in 2006.

Fethiye Museum is in Çarşamba vicinity of Fatih county of İstanbul. It is the church of Pammakaristos (very very happy) Monastery which had been built in East-Roman period. The church consists of two buildings and had been built on the remnants of the old church after the end of Latin domination in 1261. The north church is dedicated to Mary. It had been built between 1292 and 1294 by Michael Doukas Tarchaneiotes who was the nephew of Emperor Michael Palaiologos VIII. After a while Maria, the wife of Michael Doukas had built a small additional church (Parecclesion) in 1315 dedicated to Christ at the right of the north church. This additional church is a grave chapel containing the graves of Maria and Michael.

After the conquest, the monastery and the church were held by the Christians; and the patriarchate discharged from Havariyun Church moved here in 1455 and this place had been used for patriarchate until 1586. The building had been transformed into a church in Sultan Murad III period and denominated as Fethiye for the sake of Azerbaijan and Georgia military expeditions which had been carried out then.

The Istanbul Fethiye Museum and Mosque (Pammakaristos), which was built in the beginning of 12th century as a monastery church and later turned into a museum, will be restored by the Istanbul Provincial Administration. The administration, which has started work at the Istanbul Fethiye Museum and Mosque, plans to finish the projects inside the museum and start the restoration of the building by July 2012.

Under the republic, frescoes and mosaics inside were uncovered in 1955 and it was turned into a museum. The arch built by the Ottomans was replaced by columns from the original. In the 1960s, the mosque was once again opened for worship and is still in use today. The parakkleison, or side corridor section of the building, has remained as a museum. The northern part of the church is also still being used as a mosque. The walls of the additional church are ornamented with beautiful mosaics from the 14th century. After being repaired between 1938 and 1940, it was converted into a unit of the Hagia Sophia Museum.

Fethiye Mosque was originally built as a church in the Çarşamba neighborhood of the Fatih District by the Byzantine historian, Mihail Glabas Tarkaniotes, in the late 13the century. Pammakaristos Church, also known as the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos, "All-Blessed Mother of God", in 1591 converted into a mosque and known as Fethiye Mosque (Turkish: Fethiye Camii, "mosque of the conquest") and today partly a museum, is one of the most famous Byzantine churches in Istanbul, Turkey.

The parekklesion, besides being one of the most important examples of Constantinople's Palaiologan architecture, and the last pre-Ottoman building to house the Ecumenical Patriarchate, also has the largest amount of Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul after the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church. The building is located in the Çarşamba neighbourhood within the district of Fatih inside the walled city of Istanbul.

Theotokos Pammakaristos overlooks the Golden Horn. According to most scholars, the church was built between the eleventh and the twelfth centuries. Many historians and archaeologists believe that the original structure of the church can be attributed to Michael VII Ducas (1071-1078), others put its foundation in the Comnenian period. It has also been suggested by the Swiss scholar and Byzantinist Ernest Mamboury that the original building was erected in the 8th century.

A parekklesion (a side chapel) was added to the south side of the church in the early Palaiologan period, and dedicated to Christos ho Logos (Greek: Christ the Word). The small shrine was erected by Martha Glabas in memory of her late husband, the protostrator Michael Doukas Glabas Tarchaneiotes, a general of Andronikos II Palaiologos, shortly after the year 1310. An elegant dedicatory inscription to Christ, written by the poet Manuel Philes, runs along the parekklesion, both outside and inside it.

The main church was also renovated at the same time, as the study of the Templon has shown. Following the fall of Constantinople, the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate was first moved to the Church of the Holy Apostles, and in 1456 to the Pammakaristos Church, which remained as the seat of the Patriarchate until 1587. Five years later, the Ottoman Sultan Murad III converted the church into a mosque and renamed it in honor of his Fetih (Conquest) of Georgia and Azerbaijan, hence the name Fethiye Camii.

After it was converted into a mosque, the building’s abscissa was destroyed and a domed interior, a mihrab, a niche for the mosque, and a madrasa surrounding the courtyard along with minarets on three sides were added to the structure. To accommodate the requirements of prayer, most of the interior walls were removed in order to create a larger inner space. The complex, which was neglected, has been restored in 1949 by the Byzantine Institute of America and Dumbarton Oaks, which brought it back to its pristine splendor.

While the main building remains a mosque, the parekklesion has since then been a museum. The transformation of the church into a mosque changed the original building greatly. The Comnenian building was a church with a main aisle and two deambulatoria, and had three apses, and a narthex to the west. The masonry was typical of the Comnenian period, and adopted the technique of the recessed brick.

In this technique, alternate coarses of brick are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar's bed, which can still be seen in the cistern underneath and in the church. The transformation of the church into a mosque changed the original building greatly. The arcades connecting the main aisle with the deambulatoria were removed and were replaced with broad archways to open up the nave.

The three apses were removed too. In their place toward the east a great domed room was built, obliquely with respect to the orientation of the building. On the other side, the parekklesion represents the most beautiful building of the late Byzantine period in Constantinople. It has the typical cross-in-square plan with five domes, but the proportion between vertical and horizontal dimensions is much bigger than usual (although not so big as in the contemporary Byzantine churches built in the Balkans).

Although the inner colored marble revetment largely disappeared, the shrine still contains the restored remains of a number of mosaic panels, which, while not as varied and well-preserved as those of the Chora Church, serve as another resource for understanding late Byzantine art.

A representation of the Pantocrator, surrounded by the prophets of the Old Testament (Moses, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Micah, Joel, Zechariah, Obadiah, Habakkuk, Jonah, Malachi, Ezekiel, and Isaiah) is under the main dome. On the apse, Christ Hyperagathos is shown with Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. The Baptism of Christ survives intact to the right side of the dome.

Fethiye Mosque underwent repaires in 1845, and an elementary school was built on the site of madrasa in the beginning of the 20th century. The complex’s structural integrity was also compromised by  removing the outer wall of the forecourt. In addition, the mosque was later restored by the General Directorate of Religious Endowments between 1936 and 1938 and, after converting it into a museum, it was left under the administration of the Directorate of Museums.

It was said that the Fethiye Mosque had been left rugged in that period, and it was reconverted into a mosque in the 1960s and the parekklesion situated next to the building was restored by the Byzantine Institute of America. During that restoration period, the mosaics and frescos in the  parekklesion were revealed. The Comnenian building was a church with a main aisle and two deambulatoria, and had three apses, and a narthex to the west.

Mosaics

The former Byzantine Church of the Theotokos Pammakaristos - or "All Blessed Mother of God" - has been called Fethiye Mosque since its conversion into a mosque.  It is located in the northwest corner of the city of Istanbul. The original church was built during the Comnenian dynasty, probably during the reign of Alexios I. There was an inscription (now lost) in the main church mentioning a John Comnenus and his wife Anna (not Anna Dassalena), so the church has been dated to 1065.

The church was always an Imperial monastery and many members of the Palaiologan dynasty were buried in it. A parekklesion was added to the church by the Palaiologian Princess Maria Glabaina to the right side of the church in honor of her husband in the early fourteenth century. The uncovering of the mosaics was completed in 1962 and comprise 41 scenes. Some parts of the marble revetment of the chapel have survived and they are topped by a delightful marble frieze oramented in the champleve technique, which circles the building.

The frieze is inlaid with black pitch (which has faded to a dull blue-gray in most places) and a red substance. It shows vines, round medallions and heart-shapoed shields containing rampant red lions and other fanciful animals including paired birds. It is thought the lions are a family crest associated with the Glabas family. The chapel had an inlaid Cosmatesque pavement, a fragment of which is preserved in the northeast corner.

Fragments of a carved fourteenth century marble templon were found in the church, which are now in the Hagia Sophia Museum. Carved and gilded dome cornice of the PammakaristosThe marble cornice of the dome is carved with crosses and rosettes. It was painted blue and the raised carving was covered with red bole and gilded. The crosses were left white. Christ appears alone in the conch because the chapel was dedicated to Him.

Renants of an inscription were uncovered in gold letters on a blue backround which had been painted on the cornice which encircles the chapel. This incription was difficult to conserve because it was painted upon a single layer of thin gesso applied to the marble cornice; the ancient paint layer tended to flake off during restoration. It is in iambic trimeters. The verses, by Manuel Philes, are an invocation to God addressed to Christ the Word, for the repose of the soul of Maria's husband, the Protostrator Michael Glabas Tarchaniotes.

The poem continues on an exterior cornice of the north side of the facade of the chapel. Glabas died around 1304 and was buried in the parekklesion. After her husband's death Maria Glabaina took the veil and became a nun, taking the name of Martha. She did enter religious life at the Pammakaristos, which was a men's monastery, but at the Convent of the Virgin of the Sure Hope where her sister also took holy orders later.

After the fall of the City of Constantionople to the Ottoman Turks in the 1453 the great cathedral church of Constantinople and seat of the Orthodoxy, Hagia Sophia was seized and converted into a mosque. The Conqueror Mehmed II found the anti-Unionist monk Gennadios in his cell at the Pantokrator Monastery and, much to his surprize and shock, elevated him to the Patriarchal throne, presenting him personally with his pastoral staff.

After a short residence in Justinian's church of the Holy Apostles, in 1455 the Patriarch Gennadios was forced to surrender this cathedral and moved to the Pammakaristos.  The Sultan Mehmed II visited the church and sat in this chapel to converse with the Patriarch Gennadios, who must have lived in great fear and awe of him. In the insuing years relics, works of art, liturgical vessels and even the remains of former Emperors and Empresses of Byzantium were gathered together at the Pammakaristos as churches were closing or being demolished throughout the city.

In 1488 the Chief Treasurer of the Sultan, Iskander bey, who lived near the church, seized the portable treasures of the Pammakaristos and all the money left by the recently deceased Patriarch Symeon I to the church - a great fortune totalling 180,000 aspers. In 1518 the church was restored.  Structural problems with the dome required urgent repairs and money - 100,000 aspers - was raised from the Orthodox Hospodar of Wallachia for this purpose.

From the time of the conquest the Christians who remained in Constantinople were under constant threat. They remained a significant minority in the city - as high as 40% of the population - that was an important source of taxation and extortion by powerful officials of the Sultan's court. At the same time the churches that remained in Christian hands were under constant threat by Muslim religious zelots and they fell, one by one, converted into mosques.

In 1538 Turkish scholars decided that, since Constantinople had taken by assault, according to Islamic law no Christian churches should be allowed to remain in the city.  A firman was issued to that effect and the Patriarch Jeremias I got wind of the Sultan's degree through a secret source. The Patriarch prayed to the icon of the Virgin Pammakaristos (this mosaic icon still exists in the Fener today) in the church to deliver the Christians and their few remaining churches in the city from this looming disaster.

He then went to the Grand Vizier Tulfi Pasa for help. The Grand Vizier told the Patriarch to make the case to the Sultan than Constantine XI had actually capitulated to Sultan Mehmet II.  He was able to produce two elderly witnesses - 84 years after the fall - who had been in the siege of the city and were willing to testify under oath that they had seen the surrender with their own eyes.

The Sultan Süleyman accepted this testimony (one can imagine the bribes that must have been paid), cancelled the firman he had issued and created a new one guranteeing the inviolability of the Greek churches at Constantinople, and this firman was stored in the Savior chapel of the Pammakaristos. What was gained with so much effort was soon lost. In 1584, less than 50 years later, a new Sultan decided once more that all the Christian churches left in the city should be converted to mosques, but this step was - this time - prevented by the invention of the Aga of the Janissaries.

The illegitimate Patriarch Pachomios II removed from under the church dome of the Pammakaristos four columns of precious marble and a part of the marble revetment of the church and sent them as a present to his protector at court, a certain Mehmed ağa who was attached to the service of the Sultan's mother. In desperation he tried to sell the silver vessels and all the relics remaining in the church to the Venetians - all to no avail.

The church was seized by Sultan Murad III in 1587 and converted into a mosque to celebrate his conquest of Azerbaijan. It was taken away from the Christians on the pretext that the Pammakaristos had been given by Sultan Mehmed II on a personal basis, without any assuarnce that it would be passed on to his heirs on the Patriarchal throne, hence the property belonged to the Sultan to do as he pleased. Thereupon the Turks entered the premises and recited their prayers there. It followed that the Pammakaristos was confiscated in August 1587.
It should be noted that this period was one of religious intolerance for minorities in the West as well as in the Ottoman Empire.

The central sanctuary was structurally altered by the Turks. Thomas Matthews, in his book Byzantine Churches of Istanbul, writes about this: "The triple arcades which originally separated the square nave from the ambulatories on three sides were removed and broad pointed arches were substituted; the three apses were destroyed and in their place a domed square room was placed obliquely against the eastern end of the building; fenestration was revised and the walls and piers were hewn back or remade to provide maximum openness of space in the building. The end result makes the original design difficult to recognize or appreciate."

The Turks removed the two marble columns on the north side of the parakklesion and inserted a wide arch there. During the restoration of 1963 the arch was removed, the original struction here was restored in brick and columns cast in concrete that matched the appearance the original richly veined columns of Proconnesian marble that remained on the south side. The capitals of these columns were carved in the fourteenth century and were gilded on red bole with a blue ground (the columns of Hagia Sophia were also gilded in this same way in the eleventh) and much of this decoration still survives.

Two mosaics icons from the church, one of the Hodegetria and the other of John the Baptist, were removed from the church and survive. There was a great fire in June 1784 - in the resulting repairs the mosaics of the main church were scrapped down and those of the chapel were plastered over. However, the dome of the chapel was never concealed and was visable in the nineteeth century.

The decoration of the dome consists of a medaillon of the Pantokrator at the summit and of twelve prophets in the calotte around Him. This constitutes the most impressive iconographical unit in the nave.  The drum of the dome, pierced by twelve fairly large windows, provides no suitable surfaces for decoration; it was thus left with only a layer of plain gold ground which has largely disappeared. The pendentives have been stripped of their original decoration which probably consisted of the four Evangelists.

There is a close iconographical affinity with the corresponding figure in the south dome of the inner narthex of the Chora Church, now called the Kariye Mosque. The expression of the face here is rather more severe when compared with the more humanized Christs of the Palaeologan period. The composition of the Deesis in the apse consists of Christ - here called the "Most Benevolent" with the Theotokos on the left side of the bema and John the Baptist on the right.

To the general theme of the Deesis has been added four busts of archangels in the vault above them. They represent Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. The image of Christ shows him extending His hand out in blessing. This iconographic type occured quite suddenly in the late eleventh century under the Emperor Michael IV and has been associated with his decoration of the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian.

The epithet "Most Benevolent" has not been found on any other image of Christ and is not recorded in the Hermeneia of Dionysios of Fourna, a sixteenth century authority on icon painting. This Deesis image of Christ and its inscription appears to be unique and therefore was a specific choice by Maria. Note that the Virgin is standing on a jewelled footstool, setting her above John the Baptist who stands across the bema from her.

This image of John the Baptist is noted for the fact the feet remained in the underpaint with only the highlights set in white mosaic. The colors of the robes of the Pantokrator are a stunning, rich blue and are expertly modelled. The face is realistically portrayed and there is damage to one of the eyes. The parekklesion was dedicated to Our Savior. The mosaics cannot be firmed dated through historical sources, but must date from around 1310, so they are contemporary with those of the Chora Church.

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WEB SITE : Fethiye Mosque Museum

MORE INFO & CONTACT
E-Mail : ayasofyamuzesi@kultur.gov.tr
Phone : +90 212 635 1273 / +90 212 522 0989
Fax : +90 212 512 5474

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PANAGIA HODEGETRIA AYAZMASI

Gülhane Park, Fatih - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'48.7"N 28°58'54.6"E / 41.013528, 28.981833

The Hodegon Monastery (also Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria or Monastery of the Hodegoi) in Constantinople was allegedly founded by Saint Pulcheria (399-453), a daughter of Emperor Arcadius.

Tradition states that the monastery held the Icon of the Hodegetria, believed to have been painted by Saint Luke. When the icon was sent to Pulcheria, she took a vow of chastity. The name of the icon, Panagia "Hodegetria" ("She who shows the Way"), is given through the legend which tells that nearby the church of the monastery was a source where the blind and all who suffered eye disorders came to be healed, since the Holy Virgin would have appeared to two blind people and guided them here where she restored their vision.

The sanctuary was rebuilt by Emperor Michael III (842-867) but only a few ruins are visible near Gülhane Park. The most venerated icon of the Hodegetria type, regarded as the original, was displayed in the Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria in Constantinople, which was built specially to contain it.

Unlike most later copies it showed the Theotokos standing full-length. It was said to have been brought back from the Holy Land by Eudocia, the Empress of Theodosius II (408-450), and to have been painted by Saint Luke. The icon was double-sided, with a crucifixion on the other side, and was "perhaps the most prominent cult object in Byzantium".

There are a number of images showing the icon in its shrine and in the course of being displayed publicly, which happened every Tuesday, and was one of the great sights of Constantinople for visitors.

It was moved to the monastery of the Pantocrator, the base of the Venetian see, from 1204 to 1261, during the period of Frankish rule, and since none of the illustrations of the shrine at the Hodegetria monastery predate this interlude, the shrine may have been created after its return.

The original icon has probably now been lost, although various traditions claim that it was carried to Russia or Italy. There are a great number of copies of the image, including many of the most venerated of Russian icons, which have themselves acquired their own status and tradition of copying.

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MYRELAION CISTERN BAZAAR

Laleli, Fatih - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'31.3"N 28°57'19.3"E / 41.008694, 28.955361



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

Just a few meters before the entrance of the former monastery, my sight was attracted by a giant advertising panel that read “Myrelaion.” With my curiosity aroused, I went over there and I saw an inconspicuous small entrance. Descending a few steps, I found myself in a huge circular space: the old rotunda, once the palace cistern. However, nowadays it accommodates a clothing bazaar.

This rotunda was built somewhere in the 5th century and the historians are yet unable to determine its initial function. It has a huge dome and an outer diameter of almost 42 meters, being the largest rotunda of Roman-Byzantine era. Only the Roman Pantheon had a larger dome.

During the rule of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (10th century) it suffered some alterations, caused by the future adjacent construction of Myrelaion Monastery. Adding 74 extra columns, the Emperor transformed the rotunda into one of the eight cisterns of Constantinople.

During the years of Ottoman yoke, this space wasn’t used very differently than in our days. It accommodated fish markets, workshops, distilleries, steam baths and warehouses until early 1900s, when the site and the surrounding area became a dump.

The archaeologists begun to excavate this area in 1930s, and they brought to light the circular cistern and the palace of Emperor Romanos Lekapenos. Then, after several failed attempts of restoration and redevelopment of the space, in 1993 it became a bazaar.

The merchants assumed I was there for their leather coats, so they started to come around me, trying to lure me with their offers. At that moment I thought about the bad example given by those tourists who visit Constantinople just to buy fur, leather coats and such, neglecting or totally ignoring many other key aspects of the City.

As I left the cistern behind me and went up to the monastery, I thought that, after all, no matter how much the City would change, no matter how many new names it will acquire, no matter how many new buildings will be erected, no matter how many attempts will be made to keep into oblivion the marks of the “other” city - there will always be everywhere enough testimonies to resist this attempt of distortion.

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