Church of the Holy Apostles
The Church of the Apostles (Greek Άγιοι Απόστολοι - Aghioi Apostoli, called by the Byzantines also Polyandreion or Myriandrion ), was a Christian church at Constantinople Opel, the former capital of the Byzantine Empire. After the Hagia Sophia, the Church of the Apostles was the most important among the great churches of the Eastern Roman Empire. Its beginnings can be down to the time of the foundation of the city by Constantine the Great traced. During the reign of Justinian I. It was again rebuilt. From the death of Constantine to the 11th century AD, it served as a burial place of the Byzantine emperors. After the conquest of Constantinople Opel in 1453 by the Ottomans and the conversion of the former main church of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, it was the Patriarch of Constantinople Opel Cathedral. 1461 the Apostle Church was seized by the conquerors and destroyed to make way for the Fatih Mosque. A general idea of their appearance conveyed today the built St. Mark's Basilica in Venice follow her example.
The construction of the 4th century AD
After Constantine the Great defeated Licinius its competitors and so the autocracy had gained over the Roman Empire, he founded 324 AD on the site of ancient Byzantium his new residence Konstantin Opel. Like some of his immediate predecessors, the emperor of the Tetrarchy, he also wanted to be buried at his residence. Therefore, he was one of the highest points of Constantinople on the northern strand of the Mese, the main street of the city, to create a tomb, the no later than 337 AD, when Constantine died, was completed. Eusebius of Caesarea reported that the construction has been used both as a burial ground as well as a church. Constantine's sarcophagus was located near the altar, and was surrounded by twelve thekai who stood for the twelve apostles. Some also have a syncretic Imperial cult of Constantine, the Christian linked and solar concepts, considering the origin of the construction program has been in opposition to the one-sided Christian interpretation by Eusebius.
Under Constantius II, the son and successor of Constantine, numerous changes to the system seem to have taken place. A eulogy of the later Emperor Julian mentioned construction. As a result of an earthquake had 358 AD repairs are carried out. The patriarch Makedonios could be removed for safety reasons the body of Constantine temporarily out of the church, which resented him both parts of the population of Constantinople and the Emperor Constantius. The fact that, in the written tradition from the late 4th century by two interconnected buildings, a church and a mausoleum of Constantine, speaking, suggests that in the reconstruction measures under Constantius II is a newly emerged from both. Whether the Emperor this was to attach a new church at the tomb of his father, or whether he build a new tomb and the sarcophagus of Constantine was converted from a church in this, can not be clarified definitively. From the 5th century AD sources who attribute Constantius II in both the construction of the church and the mausoleum to find. In the year 356 the relics of Andrew, Luke and Timothy were (the latter two were apostles students) transferred to the Church.
After his death, Constantius was as well as his wife buried in the mausoleum of his father. Other late antique emperors and their relatives found here or in another, mounted to the church plants their last resting. The sarcophagi of Jovian, Valentinian I, his wife Flacilla and somewhat later by Julian stood in a Stoa north of the church, that of the Emperor Arcadius and Aelia Eudoxia pair and their son Theodosius II at a similar plant in the south. Theodosius I was again buried in Konstantinsmausoleum.
The construction of the 6th century AD
During the reign of the Emperor Justinian I the church was seen as no longer great enough. The Apostolic Church was therefore demolished and built in the same place from scratch. The mausoleum of Constantine, the North and the stoa with the sarcophagi of various emperors remained. The historian Procopius wrote to the new Justinian, while the well-known as a pseudo - historian Codinus then assigned him to the Empress Theodora. The second apostle church was consecrated on 28 June 550. She was the architect of the Hagia Sophia, has been designed and built as a cross-shaped building with five domes Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus. Depending on a dome vaulted the four arms of the cross. The crossing between the arms of the cross was the fifth, still bigger and equipped with windows dome; each arm of the cross had three naves. To the west of the western arm of the cross put on the atrium. On the north transept Justinian add another mausoleum, which was also cross-shaped and in the later, he and his wife were buried.
For more than 700 years the Church of the Apostles was after the Hagia Sophia, the second most important church in Constantinople Opel. In the succession of the late antique emperors also the most Byzantine emperors were buried until the 11th century in the mausoleums of the Church of the Apostles. Inside the church, the patriarch of the city were laid to rest. Among the relics of Andrew, Luke and Timothy came later also of St. John Chrysostom - 407 died in exile, 438 brought here by Proclus - and other Church Fathers, saints and martyrs. The church also had a part of the whipping post, had been tied to the Jesus and then beaten. In the years of its existence the Apostle Church acquired large amounts of gold, silver and precious stones that were donated by the faithful. In the 9th century, it was rebuilt by Emperor Basil I.. Probably it was also around the refinement with figurative jewelry that is likely to have suffered during the period of iconoclasm. With Constantine VIII of the last Byzantine emperor was buried in 1028 at Church of the Apostles. In the following years it was common that Emperor 's burial churches for themselves and their families built as it did about John II Komnenos with the Pantokratorkloster.
1203 saw himself Emperor Alexios III. forced due to acute shortage of funds to plunder the tombs of his predecessors. The basilica was robbed again in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. The chronicler Nicetas Choniates noted that the Crusaders plundered the tombs of emperors and robbed the tombs of her jewels of gold and precious stones. Also the grave of Justinian was not spared. The grave of the Emperor Heraclius was opened and his golden crown was with the hair that still clung to it, stolen. Some of these treasures were taken to Venice, where they can be seen at St. Mark's Basilica.
When Michael VIII Palaeologus recaptured the city from the Crusaders, he had a statue of the Archangel Michael set up in the Church of the Apostles, and to celebrate this victory itself. The church was restored under Emperor Andronikos II in the early 14th century, but fell soon as the Byzantine Empire lost large parts of his realm and the population of the capital fell. The Florentine Cristoforo Buondelmonti saw the decaying church in the year 1420.
1453 Opel succumbed Constantine the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks. The Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque and Sultan Mehmed II ordered the Greek Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius to move to the Apostle Church, which thus became the center of Orthodoxy. The district, which housed the Church, was settled by Turks, and soon the hostilities grew over such a large and centrally located building in the hands of the Christians. Gennadius decided, but especially due to the poor structural condition of the church, to transfer the seat of the Patriarchate in the Pammakaristos church in the Christian district of Phanar.
Sultan Mehmed II ordered the Apostle Church torn down in 1461 and was commissioned to build a mosque of comparable beauty and grandeur in the same place. The result was the Fatih Mosque ( Mosque of the Conqueror ), the successor building from the 18th century, today stands on the site of the Church of the Apostles and in the vicinity of the grave of Mehmed located.
Sources for the appearance of the Apostle Church
Literary sources
The oldest mention of the Apostles church dates from the Vita Constantini of Eusebius of Caesarea, which was written AD after the death of Constantine the Great in 337. According to him, the building served both as a church as well as the burial site of Constantine. Unfortunately, Eusebius was not interested in a precise description of the architecture and provides only some information about the design of the interior. In addition, one gets the impression that there had been a central building. In a poem written around 380 Gregory of Nazianzus certifies the Apostle Church, a cruciform shape. Around 400 AD, is then found in a sermon of St. John Chrysostom for the first time an indication that there were two different buildings at the Church of the Apostles and the mausoleum of Constantine the Great. Since the time of Eusebius thus a major conversion of the complex must have occurred. As John explains, the mausoleum had found the vestibule of the church and as later sources show that it was adjacent to the east of the church, this suggests that the construction of the 4th century was oriented to the west. This was also the case with many other church foundations of the Constantinian period and similar to the relationship of church and mausoleum at Helenamausoleum.
About the appearance of the newly built church of Justinian are more detailed information than their predecessor from the 4th century. Witness its construction was Prokopios of Caesarea, who wrote in his work on the buildings of Justinian:
Two straight building design are in the middle connected in a cross shape, with the main ship after sunrise and sunset, the transept but is oriented to the north and south. From the outside, the two buildings are all around complete with walls, inside of pillars, which are forward and backward, framed. At their interface - it could be about in the middle - there is a place that only the priests are allowed to enter and you accordingly called holy of holies. The two wings of the transept are equal to each other, while the west wing of the nave is so much longer than the east wing, that the shape of the cross is formed. The roof structure above the so-called Holy of Holies is like running in the church of St. Sophia in the middle, only less than there. For in the same way the four arches are curved and fit into each other, and the circle above it is broken at the windows; the overarching dome gives the impression that they somehow float in height and not rest on the solid masonry on; here it is but firmly. Thus, the roof construction is applied in the center. What the, as I said, four wings are concerned, they are just as high as the middle, and only one is lacking that the masonry is pierced under the domed part of any windows.
The 10th century written by Konstantinos Rhodios and dedicated to Emperor Constantine VII description of the church of the apostles in verse can enrich this further. In each cross arm were both below and in the galleries each twelve columns. The aisles were probably barrel vaulted, the central dome higher than the other four. Each of the domes was supported by four massive pillars, which were connected to each other via a barrel vault. Three cornices ran in the interior along the walls. Also, some mosaics that adorned the interior and reproductions scenes from the New Testament are mentioned by Konstantinos. You probably went back to the renovations under Basil I.. In a larger scale described by Nikolaos Mesarites end of the 12th century. Also the book of ceremonies of Constantine VII can serve as a source of some details of the architecture of the Church of the Apostles. For example, it mentions that you could enter the main space of the vestibule by five doors, one of which was the mean as in the Hagia Sophia reserved for the emperor.
Pictorial representations of the Apostles Church
To the church of the 4th century, there is no pictorial tradition. Possible representations of Justinian's Church of the Apostles are obtained from a total of five medieval manuscripts. For one, there are three miniatures from the Menologion of Basil II in the late 10th century, in which the Apostle Church appears as a background motive. The other two come from illuminated manuscripts of the collection of sermons of the monk Jakobos Kokkinobaphos from the 12th century. They have been repeatedly interpreted as representations of the Apostles Church. For this purpose, however, is to say that it is first of all is at issue miniatures to Ascension scenes that were decorated with architectural elements such as domes or columns. Nowhere is noted that this is the representation of real architecture, let alone the Apostle Church to be done. Consequently, this remains pure speculation. Information about the appearance of the Apostles Church, which go beyond those of the written tradition, can be obtained from any of the representations.
Archaeological findings
For a long time it was assumed that the destruction in the 15th century and the subsequent construction of the Fatih Camii would have left no visible remains of the Church of the Apostles left. A Survey carried out in 2001, showed that some still existing remains of walls with the greatest probability in the time must be dated before the establishment of the mosque and should be so originally been part of the Church of the Apostles. This position and dimensions of the church can be determined much more accurately than before.
From the Apostle Church influenced buildings
Until its destruction, the architecture of the Church of the Apostles served as inspiration for many other church buildings. This already applies to the Church of the 4th century. This is also one end of the 4th century, built by Bishop Ambrose in Milan church was consecrated as the apostles and had a cross-shaped floor plan. The new building of Justinian was loud Prokopios already during or immediately after its establishment as a model for the well endowed by Justinian St John's Church of Ephesus. This building was indeed destroyed, but archaeologically well researched and partially reconstructed. In the 11th century, then was in Venice with St. Mark's Basilica, a still well -preserved example of the reception of the Apostles Church during the Middle Ages. The situation is similar with the built about the same time the Cathedral of San Sabino in Puglia Canosa di Puglia. Another example of the architectural influence of the Apostle Church in Europe is the St Front Cathedral in Perigueux Aquitaine in the 12th century. Although all of these buildings vary their model in many ways, but at the very least give a general idea of the appearance of the Apostles Church.
St. Mark's Basilica in Venice (11th century)
Périgueux Cathedral (12th century)