Part 22 (2/2)

And here also Roma.n.u.s Lecapenus himself was interred in 948, his remains being brought from the island of Prote, where his unfilial sons, Stephen and Constantine, had obliged him to spend the last years of his life as a monk.[319]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LIII.

MYRELAION. THE SOUTH SIDE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MYRELAION. THE NARTHEX, LOOKING NORTH.

_To face page 196._]

_Architectural Features_

The building is on the 'four column' plan. The dome, placed on a circular drum, is supported on four piers, and divided into eight concave compartments, with windows in the alternate compartments. The arms of the cross, the chambers at the angles, and the bema are all covered with cross-groined vaults that spring, like those in the chapel of the Pammakaristos (p. 151), from the vaulting level. The apsidal chambers have dome vaults, a niche on the east recessed in an arch to form the apse, and a niche both on the north and the south rising above the vaulting string-course. In the lowest division of the south wall stood originally a triple arcade with a door between the columns. The arcade has been built up, but the moulded jambs and cornices of the door, and the arch above it, now contracted into a window, still show on the exterior, while the columns appear within the church. Above the column string-course is a range of three windows, the central window being larger than its companions; higher up in the gable is a single light. The interior of the church has been much pulled about and cut away. The narthex is in three bays, separated by strong transverse arches, and terminates at either end in a high concave niche that shows on the outside. The central bay has a dome vault; the other bays have cross-groined vaults. The church had no gynecaeum, although Pulgher indicates one in his plan. A striking feature of the exterior are the large semicircular b.u.t.tresses that show beyond the walls of the church--six on the south side, one on either side of the entrance on the west, and two on the east, supporting the apsidal chambers. In the last case, however, where entire b.u.t.tresses would have been at once too large and too close together, the b.u.t.tresses are only half semi-circles. The apses project with three sides. The northern side of the church and the roof are modern, for the building suffered severely in 1784 from fire.[320] The church stands on a platform, built over a small cistern, the roof of which is supported by four columns crowned by beautiful capitals. Hence the Turkish name of the mosque, Bodroum, signifying a subterranean hollow. Gyllius[321] is mistaken in a.s.sociating this church with the large underground cistern situated lower down the slope of the hill close to the bath Kyzlar Agha.s.si Hamam.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LIV.

MYRELAION. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MYRELAION. THE SOUTH-WEST CROSS ANGLE.

_To face page 198._]

Since the above was in print, the church has, unfortunately, been burnt in the great fire which destroyed a large part of Stamboul on the 23rd July 1912 (see Plates II., III.).

NOTE

Gyllius (_De top. C.P._ iii. c. 8) places the Horreum, the statue of Maimas, the house of Craterus, the Modius, and the arch bearing the two bronze hands, after pa.s.sing which a criminal on the way to punishment lost all hope of reprieve, near this church; basing that opinion on the statement of Suidas that these buildings stood near the Myrelaion. But there was a Myrelaion also (Codinus, _De aed._ p. 108) in the district in which the Shahzade mosque is situated. The buildings above mentioned were near this second Myrelaion. On the other hand, the Chrysocamaron near the Myrelaion mentioned by Codinus (_De signis_, pp. 65-66) stood near the church under our consideration, for it was close to the church of S. Acacius in the Heptascalon. So also, doubtless, did the xenodocheion Myrelaion (Du Cange, iv. p. 160), possibly one of the many philanthropic inst.i.tutions supported by Helena (Theoph. Cont. p. 458), the daughter of Roma.n.u.s Lecapenus and wife of Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 66 AND 67.]

[308] _De top. C.P._ iii. c. 8.

[309] Banduri, iii. p. 48.

[310] _Ibid. ut supra._

[311] Theoph. Cont. p. 402.

[312] Scylitzes, in Cedrenus, ii. p. 649.

[313] Theoph. Cont. p. 404.

[314] _Ibid._ pp. 461, 757.

[315] Scylitzes, _ut supra_, pp. 648-49.

[316] Theoph. Cont. p. 402.

[317] _Ibid._ p. 420.

[318] _Ibid._ p. 473.

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