Myrelaion
Myrelaion (Greek: Eκκλησία του Μυρελαίου , Turkish: Bodrum Camii or Mesih Paşa Camii ) in Istanbul is a former Greek Orthodox church that has been rededicated as a mosque. The Greek name refers to the originally stored here myrrh - relic . The building is in the Lâleli neighborhood of the Fatih district .
history
Even before his appointment as Byzantine Emperor in 920, the usurper Romanos Lakapenos had acquired the property for the construction of a palace with an adjoining palace church. The palace was built over the remains of a late antique domed structure, which, with a diameter of 42 meters, was the largest central building of antiquity after the Pantheon in Rome . By installing 80 columns, this was converted into a cistern and used as a substructure for the imperial palace and the hanging gardens. To the southeast of the (not preserved) palace, Romanos built the preserved church as a burial place for his family. His wife Theodora was buried here in 922, his son and co-regent Christophoros Lakapenos in 931 and Romanos himself, who died in exile, in 948.
When Constantinople was conquered on the Fourth Crusade in 1203, the church was damaged by fire and initially abandoned; it was only restored as a church interior around 1300. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (1453) it was converted into a mosque and a minaret was added to the southwest corner . After a fire on July 23, 1912, the mosque was abandoned. Archaeological investigations were carried out in 1930 by David Talbot Rice and in 1965 by Cecil L. Striker and Rudolf Naumann . A restoration carried out in 1964–65, in which almost all of the exterior surfaces were replaced with bricks, initially left the sacred building as a ruin. The restoration project was only completed in 1986 and the building reopened as a mosque, the cistern under the former imperial palace temporarily served as a shopping center.
architecture
The Myrelaion Church, built as a brick shell, is a Byzantine cross- domed church with a rectangular floor plan with a narthex to the west . The square nave Naos is a square room with four set pillars (originally columns), which carry a barrel vault in the form of a Greek cross , crowned by a drum dome . To the east, the room closes in a three-part sanctuary with a polygonal cladding on the outside , the side rooms of which served as pastophoria . The exterior is structured by semicircular wall templates. Due to the difference in level with the neighboring former imperial palace, the church is built above a hall-like lower church with columns and barrel vaults arranged in a cross. Their task was that of a funeral church for the imperial family.
The Myrelaion had its direct model in the Nea Ekklesia of the Justinian Imperial Palace of Constantinople , consecrated in 881 and only handed down through a contemporary description in the Vita Basilii , which is considered to be the first representative of the cross-domed church type. Its builder was Basil I , who - also as usurper of the Byzantine throne - founded the Macedonian dynasty .
literature
- Rudolf Naumann: The ancient rotunda at the Myrelaion and the palace of Romanos I. Lekapenos . In: Istanbuler Mitteilungen 50, 1966, pp. 424–439.
- Philipp Niewöhner, Jenny Abura, Walter Prochaska: The early Byzantine rotunda at the Myrelaion in Constantinople. Capitals, mosaics and brick stamps In: Istanbuler Mitteilungen , Volume 60, 2010 pp. 411–459 online
- Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Pictorial dictionary on the topography of Istanbul. Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul until the beginning of the 17th century. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-8030-1022-5 .
- Cecil L. Striker: The Myrelaion (Bodrum Camii) in Istanbul. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1981.
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 31 ″ N , 28 ° 57 ′ 20 ″ E