Qalb Loze

قلب لوزة / Qalb Lauza Qalb Loze
Qalb Loze
Coordinates	36 ° 10 ′  N , 36 ° 35 ′  E Coordinates: 36 ° 10 ′  N , 36 ° 35 ′  E
Basic data
Country	Syria
Governorate	Idlib
height	685 m
Residents	1000

West facade with double tower porch, in it stairs to the galleries. The central arched portal has disappeared. The entablature and the tile covering of the gable roof are also missing

Qalb Loze ( Arabic قلب لوزة, DMG Qalb Lauza ), also calf Lauzeh; is a village in the northwest of Syria in the area of ​​the Dead Cities , which is famous for its very well-preserved early Byzantine church from the second half of the 5th century. It is the oldest wide arcade basilica in the country.

Location and townscape

Qalb Loze is located at an altitude of 670 meters in the Idlib Governorate on the high elevation of the Jebel il-Ala, a remote hill region in the western central part of the northern Syrian limestone massif, a few kilometers from the Turkish border. The place can be reached from the northeast via Barischa on a side road that branches off the main route from Aleppo to Antakya just before the Turkish border. From Jisr asch-Shugur in the south, a road runs through the fertile Orontes valley through the towns of Darkush, Salqin and Harim , from where the road climbs a further 15 kilometers to the stony and karst hills.

The place has about 1000, mostly Druze inhabitants and belongs to a settlement area otherwise inhabited by Kurds , which is located in an ecologically disadvantaged area. Due to the low ground cover, only little cultivation is possible at the high altitude of the area, but olive trees thrive on the valley floor directly below the village . Sheep are kept in pens near the houses and find grass until the summer.

The church ruins are in the center of the village. In ancient times there was only a small settlement with a maximum of 20 houses including a few pilgrim hostels on an area of ​​three hectares. The settlement was built in the vicinity of the pilgrimage church planned in the open field to supply them. The high wall that surrounds the church district ( Temenos ) is typical of a place of pilgrimage .

basilica

The oldest Christian building in northern Syria hardly differed from a residential building. It is a house church in nearby Qirqbize from the beginning of the 4th century. After the middle of the same century, the construction of arcaded basilicas began in Syria. As the almost completely preserved basilica of Mushabbak shows, this architectural style was also fully developed in rural areas in the second half of the 5th century. The oldest basilica with wide arcades is an innovation in the development of early Byzantine church construction, which became the model for many urban basilicas in Syria. These include the largest church in Ruweiha (Bizzoskirche) in the south of the limestone massif and the basilica A, which was built in the Resafa pilgrimage center in the central Syrian desert . An inscription in Old Syrian on a brick that was built into a modern building nearby gives an indication of the Syrian Orthodox faith, but does not name an architect and no construction date. The client or financier is also unknown. The basilica of Qalb Loze is connected to the pilgrimage cult around the pillar saint Symeon (389–459), who was venerated during his lifetime and at whose place of activity the posthumous Simeon Monastery, which was also based on Qalb Loze, experienced an onslaught of pilgrims . A connection results from two depictions of Symeon the Elder, on the outside of the west facade and on a pillar inside. A relic probably came to Qalb Loze before construction began, which consequently could only have taken place after 459. The year of completion is likely to have been 470 at the latest, as a small church dated 471 in the neighboring village of Bettir, two kilometers to the north, imitated the wide arcade basilica by converting an earlier single-nave church accordingly. (The church in Bettir is largely destroyed today).

Nave and apse from the southeast. The Martyrion was behind the corner of the wall

The Qalb Loze church is a three- aisled pillar basilica, the high-walled arches of which rest on two massive pillars. In the east a semicircular apse with three semicircular windows and presented columns protrudes from the altar wall. In many churches in the limestone massif, the apse is hidden behind a smooth east wall and cannot be seen from the outside. Here it is emphasized by a two-part column structure and a wide cornice corresponding to the eastern apse at Qal'at Sim'an . The very careful execution indicates experienced urban artisans. On the west wall, the building is extended by a double tower with a wide arched entrance in the middle. Such a representative west facade only existed in the area of ​​the Dead Cities on the monastery church of Der Turmanin, which was built a little later and completely disappeared, and on the Bizzoskirche of Ruweiha. Outside Syria, the Syrian twin towers are considered models for the basilica of Jereruk in northern Armenia , which was built in the 6th century .

Staircases led over the two corner towers to the galleries over the vestibule and over the aisles. The nave could be reached from the west via two entrances in each of the north and south longitudinal walls, emphasized by column-supported porches. In the middle area between the four pillars there was an oversized, horseshoe-shaped bema on which the clergy took their seats, so that most of the believers were pushed into the galleries. The interior was lit through an unusually large number of windows, 11 windows alone are on the top of the nave walls. The window openings are connected to one another on the outside by arched, profiled cornices, as can also be found on Qal'at Sim'an.

The relics of Symeon were in the south side apse. This martyrdom can be recognized from the outside by the third door in the south wall and by a tiny window next to the door through which the pilgrims could be supplied with holy oil. A window there on the east wall is framed by a particularly elaborately designed cornice band. A direct door into the chancel suggests that the Symeon relic was also used during the service.

The church was first examined in 1861 by Count Melchior de Vogüé and in 1890/91 by Howard Crosby Butler as part of an expedition to the American Princeton University . In 1936, Georges Tchalenko restored some parts. He carried out extensive investigations until 1939/40 and again in 1973. He could no longer finish the monograph he had prepared on Qalb Loze.

literature

• Christine Strube : The "Dead Cities". Town and country in northern Syria during late antiquity. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1996, pp. 20, 61-66, ISBN 3805318405
• Christine Strube: Building decoration in the northern Syrian limestone massif. Vol. I. Forms of capitals, doors and cornices in the churches of the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1993, pp. 94–115
• Georges Tchalenko: Villages Antiques de la Syrie du Nord II. Paris 1953 plate CLVII-CLX
• Howard Crosby Butler: Part II of the publications of an American Archaeological expedition to Syria in 1899-1900. Architecture and other arts. The Century & Co., New York 1904, pp. 221-225
• Howard Crosby Butler: Early Churches in Syria. Fourth to Seventh Centuries. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1929, pp. 71 f. (Amsterdam 1969)
• Edgar Baccache: Églises de village de la Syrie du Nord. Documents photographiques des archives de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie du Proche-Orient. Paul Geuthner, Paris 1980, pp. 100–109 (black and white photographs)

Web links

Commons : Calf Lots  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Qalb Loze in: Kiel Image Database Middle East. Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel Entering “Qalb Loze” in the search window leads to 20 images
• Qalb Loze. Strabo
• Qalb Lozeh. syriaphotoguide.com detailed photos
• Gertrude Bell Archive, Photographs. Album C (1905). Photographs by Gertrude Bell , April 1905 (C 051 to C 059)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Enno Littmann : Semitic Inscriptions. Part IV of the Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria 1899-1900. The Century & Co., New York 1904, p. 5, Archive.org
2. ↑ Strube 1996, p. 63
3. ^ Hermann Wolfgang Beyer : The Syrian church building. Studies of late antique art history. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1925, p. 152
4. ↑ Johannes Odenthal: Syria. High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert. DuMont, Cologne 1994, pp. 230-232
5. ↑ Strube 1996, p. 64
6. ↑ Strube 1993, p. 94 f