Isaura
Coordinates: 37 ° 11 ′ 22 ″ N , 32 ° 21 ′ 9 ″ E
Isaura is the name of two possibly identical ancient cities in the Isauria landscape of Asia Minor , Isaura Palaia (ancient Greek for Old Isaura, Latin Isaura Vetus) and Isaura Nea (ancient Greek for New Isaura, Latin Isaura Nova). The older of the two cities is located at today's Zengibar Kalesi in the village of Hacılar near Bozkır in the Turkish province of Konya , the location of the younger is disputed, it may have been in the same place. The place was the place of activity of the very important Saint Konon of Bidana in the region .
history
At the site of the ruins known today as Zengibar Kalesi was founded in the first century BC. The Galatian king Amyntas the city of Isaura (Palaia). It was the center of the Isauria landscape, which belonged to Lycaonia . The place had its first heyday in the Roman Empire , when it was awarded the honorary title Metropolis. This can still be proven in Byzantine times. At the council of Nikaia in 325 the city was represented by the bishop Silvanus of Isaura. Soon after, the place declined in importance and lost its town charter and the bishopric in the middle of the 4th century.
In the late 5th century, a law of the Emperor Zenon , handed down in the Codex Iustinianus, stipulated that Leontopolis , which was elevated to the status of a city in honor of Konon, should forever be subordinate to the Bishop of Isauropolis . The Byzantinist Klaus Belke equated Leontopolis with Isaura Palaia and identified Isauropolis (as Isaura Nea) with Aydoğmuş in the Güneysınır district of Karaman province , about 30 kilometers east and thus no longer in Lycaonia. The church historian Philipp Pilhofer instead suggests equating Leontopolis with Bidana, only two kilometers from Isaura, where the aforementioned Saint Konon was born and where his main shrine was probably located. Accordingly, Isauropolis would be identical to Isaura Palaia and thus also Isaura Nea.
From the 7th century Leontopolis is the archbishopric of the province of Isauria, in later centuries numerous archbishops of the city are involved in the patriarchal synods. It is mentioned in the Notitiae episcopatuum ( lists of bishops) until the 14th century .
The titular bishopric of Isaura goes back to Leontopolis or Isaura Nea .
City layout
The city on the three elevations of a ridge is surrounded by a four-kilometer-long city wall in a double-shell construction with filling made of earth and rubble stones. A separate fortification only encloses the acropolis on the highest point of the mountain. The city wall had a gate in the west, another, more elaborately designed gate offered direct access to the Acropolis. There was only one gate available to connect the Acropolis to the city. In the city area are the remains of three churches, a chapel on the highest point of the Acropolis, a larger church with buildings attached, perhaps monastery buildings, on the south hill and the three-aisled main church on the main square of the city below the Acropolis. On the north hill there was an octagonal building with an apse to the east. There are several necropolises outside the city fortifications that were still used in Christian times. There are numerous built-up spoils in the surrounding villages .
Acropolistor (left)
Parts of the city fortifications
South necropolis grave 1
Fragment of a lion relief
literature
- Klaus Belke : Galatia and Lycaonia . (Tabula Imperii Byzantini 4). Vienna 1984. pp. 198-200.
- Klaus Belke: From Isaura to Leontopolis In: Birgitt Borkopp , Thomas Steppan (Hrsg.): ΛΙΘΟΣΤΡΩ Studien - studies on Byzantine art and history. Festschrift for Marcall Restle, Stuttgart 2000 pp. 5–16 ISBN 978-3777200309 .
- Philipp Pilhofer: The early Christianity in the Kilikisch-Isaurischen mountain country = texts and studies on the history of early Christian literature (TU) Volume 184. De Gruyter 1918 ISBN 978-3-11-057381-7 passim.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philipp Pilhofer: Early Christianity in the Kilikisch-Isaurischen Bergland = texts and studies on the history of early Christian literature (TU) Volume 184. De Gruyter 1918 ISBN 978-3-11-057381-7 pp. 262-264.
- ↑ Osman Doğanay, Savaş Altun, Özge Altun: Zengibar Kalesi (Konya-Bozkır) 2015 Yılı Araştırmaları 34. In: Araştırmalar Sonuçları Toplantısı 2. Cilt Edirne 2016 pp. 443–466