St. Menas (Istanbul)

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View of the church from the west

The Saint Menas Church ( Greek Ἄγιος Μηνάς , Ágios Minás ; Turkish Ayios Minas Kilisesi ) is a Greek Orthodox sacred building in Istanbul . The church was built in 1833 over a martyrion from the 4th or 5th century AD, which may have been built to worship the Saints Carpus and Papylus . The new church is dedicated to St. Menas , as well as a holy spring nearby .

location

The church is surrounded by a high wall in the district of Kocamustafapaşa (historically Samatya ) in the Istanbul district of Fatih in the Bestekar Hakkı Sokak . It is located inside the Theodosian Wall in an elevated position not far from the coast of the Marmara Sea . The dilapidated Martyrion lies under the church and can be entered via Abdurrahman Nafiz Gürman Caddesi . Opposite the Martyrion is the holy Menas spring .

history

Byzantine period

Barrel vault in the entrance area of ​​the Martyrion

According to the church fathers , Helena , mother of Constantine the Great , commissioned the construction of a martyrion and a monastery in the fourth century , which was to serve the veneration of Saints Karpos and Papylos and was located at the foot of the steep southwest slope of Xeropholos, which was the seventh hill of Constantinople belonged, and was outside the city walls at that time and before the construction of the Theodesian Land Wall.

Karpos, Papylos, Agathodorus and Agathonika were burned at the stake in Pergamon under Emperor Decius in 251 because they had refused to practice the Roman imperial cult. The building is said to have had the same floor plan as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and was decorated with a marble decor. Although Helena's involvement in the establishment is rather uncertain and a foundation can be safely ruled out by her, the existence of several martyrs in the area is considered certain. In addition, the round structure under the church probably dates from the fourth or fifth century AD and has the typical shape of a martyrion. In Byzantine times, a nunnery was built here before the 10th century. During this period and until at least the 12th century there is evidence of the existence of a nunnery near the Helenianai Palace, which was dedicated to Saints Karpos and Papylos.

Ottoman period

After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Greeks kept the building. There is evidence of a domed church under the patronage of St. Polycarp and a spring dedicated to St. Menas was consecrated. This church was destroyed in a fire in the Samatya district in 1782 and rebuilt in 1833 by the architect Konstantis Yolasığmazis with money from a collection of the local community assembly and with the consent of Sultan Mahmud II. The new church was under the patronage of St. Menas. In 1878/79 four graves were discovered under the church.

The building was damaged during the anti-Christian pogroms in Istanbul on September 6, 1955, but was renovated afterwards. The church is still used today by the Greek Orthodox community and can be visited.

architecture

View of the back wall of the church in the east
Iconostasis with representations of saints and icons of Christ

The current church is a building with a rectangular floor plan, a length of 20 meters, a width of 13 meters and a height of 9 meters. It runs from east to west, has a side entrance and a bell tower. The exterior of the masonry consists of rubble stones with two thin layers of red bricks that look like cornices. The interior is divided into three naves. The barrel vault of the central nave is supported by round columns with Corinthian capitals . The images in the upper area of ​​the iconostasis show images from the life of Christ, in the lower area there are depictions of Christ, several saints and the Virgin Mary. Christ and the evangelists are depicted on the ambo . The naos is adorned with images of Christ as Pantocrator . Remains of the old Byzantine church are no longer preserved.

The Martyrion is located under the church behind a gas station with a workshop and shop. It can be entered through a modern entrance that was created by enlarging an old window. The original building structure was a rotunda , the dome of which was supported by an inner circle of columns. The central room is surmounted by a sunken dome made of bricks and is 5.70 meters high and 12 meters in diameter. This room is partially surrounded by a deambulatorium 2.5 meters wide and 7.5 meters high with a horseshoe-shaped floor plan. The room leads to a rectangular bema in the east . In the south you can see the remains of a spiral staircase, which may have been used to reach the church above, and in the north is a cella with an apse . The holy spring exists to this day opposite the Martyrion.

literature

  • Raymond Janin: La Géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin . 1st part: Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique of the 3rd volume: Les Églises et les Monastères . Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines, Paris 1953
  • Semavi Eyice : Istanbul. Petite Guide a travers les Monuments Byzantins et Turcs . Istanbul Matbaası, Istanbul 1955
  • Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Bildlexikon on the topography of Istanbul: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul up to the beginning of the 17th century . Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 978-3-8030-1022-3

Web links

Commons : Menaskirche Istanbul  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Janin (1953), p. 288.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Müller-Wiener (1977) p. 187
  3. ↑ Archaeological Destructıon in Turkey, Year 2008 preliminary report , Türkiye Arkeolojik Yerleşmeleri , p. 41, accessed on April 10, 2019 (PDF)
  4. ^ HE Del Medico: Fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Constantinople . In: Byzantion , Vol. 10, No. 2, 1935, p. 779
  5. ↑ a b c d e Eyice (1955), p. 93

Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 1.5 ″  N , 28 ° 55 ′ 54.8 ″  E