Euphemia Church (Constantinople)

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Floor plan of the Antiochus Palace with Hagia Euphemia

The Church of St. Euphemia in the Hippodrome ( Greek Ἀγία Εὐφημία ἐν τῷ Ἱπποδρομίῳ , Hagia Euphēmia en tō Hippodromiō ) was a Byzantine church in Constantinople . It was dedicated to Euphemia of Chalcedon .

history

Map of the Byzantine Constantinople

Around 416 to 418 the eunuch and influential praepositus sacri cubiculi Antiochus had a palace built west of the hippodrome . The building had a large hexagonal hall with an apse , which was connected with a wide semicircular colonnade, which was about 60 meters in diameter and enclosed a courtyard paved with marble. After the fall of the eunuch, his property was confiscated and taken over into the imperial property.

The church of St. Euphemia in the hippodrome was probably set up in the first half of the 6th century in the hexagonal hall and was built by St. Dedicated to Euphemia. It is not undisputed whether the building was not built until the bones of St. Euphemia or was previously used as a church. The relics of Euphemia had to be brought from the Euphemia church in Chalcedon to the safe Constantinople before the approaching Sassanids . After this translocation, the two octagonal and two twelve-sided mausoleums were added.

In the second half of the 8th century the church was profaned and the grave of the saint was desecrated in 766 under Constantine V. The church served at times as an arsenal and stable. According to tradition, the bones of the saints were to be ordered by Emperor Leo III. or his son Constantine V would be thrown into the sea. However, they were saved and brought to Lemnos , from where they were brought back by Empress Eirene in 796 after the Second Council of Nicaea . Today the bones rest in the Euphemia Church in Rovinj .

Under Empress Eirene, the church was then restored, probably supplemented by a templon and a synthronon and repainted. Presumably the church already belonged to the metropolitan seat of Chalcedon at that time, but this has only been proven since the late 11th century.

In a fire in the Mese area in 1203 , the Euphemia Church was probably also damaged. During this time, a burial niche was built in the outer corridor. 1280/90 the church was under the rule of Palaiologoi restored and painted. Pilgrimage reports suggest that the church was a popular place of pilgrimage afterwards. From 1390, after the conquest of Chalcedon in 1350 by the Turks, the church was under the patriarchate of Constantinople.

At the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century, large palace buildings were built by high dignitaries of the Ottoman Empire in the deserted area of ​​the hippodrome . The later Grand Vizier Makbul Ibrahim Pascha lived here from 1522 in a palace, through which parts of the Antiochus Palace had been built over and the remains of the church were destroyed. It is not known when the church was destroyed. The relics are said to have been in the Patriarchate at that time. In 1748, the excavation for the construction of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque on the site of the Antiochus Palace was heaped up. Spolia from the church was apparently used in the construction of the grave of the server Dede († 1766).

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the area was built over with small houses and a prison was built. When this was demolished in 1939, the construction and painting remains of the Euphemia Church were discovered. From 1942 there was extensive excavation work by Rudolf Naumann , which Rüstem Duyuran continued from 1950 to 1952.

architecture

The hexagon had a diameter of about 20 meters and walls 10.4 meters wide. Each wall had an apsidal wall niche that was polygonal on the outside and semicircular on the inside. Each niche was 7.65 meters wide and 4.65 meters deep. Each alcove also had a door that led to small circular spaces between the alcoves. A marble basin stood in the center of the hall. The hexagonal room was flanked by other rooms around the portico , including a spacious vestibule with a round room in the center. Originally the western chapel was frescoed with the martyrdom of St. Euphemia decorated. The chancel was coupled.

The walls consisted of solid block masonry made of shell limestone, which was pierced with brick strips. The ashlars are connected to one another by simple iron clips with lead dowels. Half-domes and dome were made of brickwork.

During the conversion to a church, the Bema was set up to the right of the original entrance in the apse facing southeast and a new entrance was created in the opposite apse. The original gate remained, but was later reduced in size. The remains of a ciborium and the stylobate of the Bema barriers can also be seen. Two more gates were broken through in the two northern rooms, to which two mausoleums were possibly added. The entrance side is slightly concave due to its location on the semicircular colonnade.

Furnishing

It is not known exactly which relics besides the head of the saint were kept in the church. It is known, however, that the remains were kept in a marble sarcophagus, which stood to the left of the altar in the north-east niche of the church.

During the excavations, the remains of a seven-step synthronon (a semicircular priest's bench) were found, the foundations of an altar, a templon and a solea (raised corridor that connects the bema and ambo ). However, no evidence of an ambo was found. Most of the remains of the sculptures are typical of the 6th century, such as marble sculptures with glass algae. The preserved epistyle of the Bema barriers dates from the time of the restoration of the church in 797.

On the southwest side of the church there are still some frescos that are now protected behind glass. Fourteen of them show a cycle of the life and martyrdom of St. Euphemia, while other frescoes depict the martyrdom of the forty martyrs of Sebaste and thus address a motif that is unique for the city.

In the southeast apse is a later added Arcosol tomb of a bishop who kneels before the Madonna and three holy patriarchs and held a model of the church in his hand.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Image dictionary on the topography of Istanbul. Byzantium, Constantinupolis, Istanbul until the beginning of the 17th century. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-8030-1022-5 , p. 122
  2. ↑ Arne Effenberger : City Internal relics translations in Constantinople Opel - The case of St. Euphemia of Chalcedon . In: Falko Daim, Jörg Drauschke (ed.): Behind the walls and on the open country. Life in the Byzantine Empire . (= Byzantium between Orient and Occident , Volume 3), Propylaeum, Heidelberg 2017, p. 45 f. ( Digitized version )
  3. ↑ Alexander Kazhdan : Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 , p. 747
  4. ↑ Averil Cameron, Judith Herrin: Constantinople in the early eighth century: the Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai. Introduction, translation, and commentary . Brill, Leiden 1984, ISBN 978-90-04-07010-3 , pp. 22, 63
  5. ↑ Averil Cameron, Judith Herrin: Constantinople in the early eighth century: the Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai. Introduction, translation, and commentary . Brill, Leiden 1984, ISBN 978-90-04-07010-3 , p. 22
  6. ^ A b Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 , pp. 747-748.
  7. ↑ a b Wolfgang Müller-Wiener: Image dictionary on the topography of Istanbul. Byzantium, Constantinupolis, Istanbul until the beginning of the 17th century. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-8030-1022-5 , p. 123
  8. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Müller-Wiener: Image dictionary on the topography of Istanbul. Byzantium, Constantinupolis, Istanbul until the beginning of the 17th century. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-8030-1022-5 , p. 125
  9. ^ Jelena Bogdanovic: The Framing of Sacred Space . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2017, pp. 190–193
  10. ↑ Alfons Maria Schneider: The Martyrion of St. Euphemia at the Hippodrome of Constantinople . In: Byzantine Journal , Volume 42, Issue 1, p. 179
  11. ↑ Alfons Maria Schneider: The Martyrion of St. Euphemia at the Hippodrome of Constantinople . In: Byzantine Journal , Volume 42, Issue 1, p. 180
  12. ↑ Arne Effenberger : City Internal relics translations in Constantinople Opel - The case of St. Euphemia of Chalcedon . In: Falko Daim, Jörg Drauschke (ed.): Behind the walls and on the open country. Life in the Byzantine Empire . (= Byzantium between Orient and Occident , Volume 3), Propylaeum, Heidelberg 2017, p. 48
  13. ↑ Alfons Maria Schneider: The Martyrion of St. Euphemia at the Hippodrome of Constantinople . In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift , Volume 42, Issue 1, p. 181 f.
  14. ↑ Alfons Maria Schneider: The Martyrion of St. Euphemia at the Hippodrome of Constantinople . In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift , Volume 42, Issue 1, p. 183