Serjilla

Serjilla, Arabic سيرجيلة, rare Serdjilla, Sirdjilla; was an early Byzantine settlement in the northern Syrian limestone massif in northwestern Syria. The well-preserved stately residential buildings dating from the 5th and 6th centuries AD Serjilla to make known the dead cities.

Location

Serjilla is located in Idlib province at about 700 meters above sea level in the barren and sparsely populated hills of the Jebel Zawiye (also Jebel Riha ). The village is located about 35 kilometers south of Idlib and is accessible via Ariha. Alternatively leads from Maarath to - Numan, a road to the west of the small town of Kafr NABL (ten km) and after a further six kilometers past the smaller ancient settlements Btirsa and Muglaya ( Muğleyya ). Here a road branches to the north, reached after two kilometers Ba'uda, which is recognized by a pyramid grave, and after a further two kilometers Serjilla. The great early Byzantine city of al - Bara is located on a new road four kilometers north-west. From the coach park ruins in a wide valley floor is to survey.

Cityscape

In the center of the town, whose story begins in the middle of the 4th century and ends after the 7th century, the two best-preserved buildings are adjacent. They date from the 5th century and constitute a public building complex. In the design, they correspond to the large private villas, two -story, limestone ashlar massive and seamlessly layered gabled houses. There is a general distinction that private houses usually open to a, surrounded by a high wall courtyard, while the entrances of public buildings to the street oriented.

Public Buildings

The two houses were studied in the 1860s by Melchior Comte de Vogüé and have hardly changed since then in their state of preservation.

The Andron with the function of a community and a guest house for men had a ground floor storage room or shed and upstairs a large undivided space which was used as a meeting room. The southern entrance side is presented with closed side walls and three columns of a two-story portico. Säulenportiken of houses are in the 5th and 6th centuries, typical of the area of Jebel Zawiye, while in the north of the limestone massif at least the lower architraves were supported by pillars. The columns are surmounted on each floor of simple Doric capitals, which are formed in a particular style variant with laterally protruding plastic spacers. This local Kapitellstil was described by Howard Crosby Butler as " Syrian ". The Syrian capital was reserved for residential buildings, churches it occurs only in Btirsa and at the South Church of Ruweiha. Butler held for the first time as part of the American Expedition 1899/1900 short in Serjilla on. On his next visit 1904/1905 he undertook detailed investigations.

The adjacent and oriented in the same direction bathhouse, after a mosaic floor rest, the Butler 1900 found can be chronologically ordered. The mosaic shows a pomegranate tree in a somewhat more provincial representation than a comparable mosaic motif, which was found in the Elias Church in Jordan Madaba. It bears the date 784 of the Seleucid era, corresponding to 473 AD. In the northern half of the spa were a residence and a changing room, the only surviving in small groups south a series of hot and cold water baths. Outside there was a cistern. The northern part of the building with the still upright gable had a gable roof, the flat roof of the southern crop was covered with stone slabs. Founder of the bath were a Juliano and his wife Donna.

The rectangular windows of the west side have no frame design, but two arched windows spaced are framed on the east side of a profile ribbon running through the windows of time, at right angles to fold over at the bottom corner of the window in the horizontal and stops after a short distance. This shows how the design of the churches could also affect secular buildings. So at the same time incurred the east window churches were highlighted at the altar over the other windows. The emphasis of this window suggests that there was beneath the main entrance to the spa.

Private houses

Many of the other secular buildings demonstrate the wealth and the urban character of the place. Another unusual feature is the rich design of the facade with Gesimsbändern and window frames on the house No. 18, which lies in a slightly higher, from the entrance rear district. The building had a two-story porch on the south side, of which the entire lower column position is in situ. His condition has not changed since the 1900 description of Butler. The Kapitellvarianten the upper portico columns correspond to those of the Church of Muglaya, so the house was probably built at the end of the 5th century. In general, the first private houses were built with cornices on the exterior walls in Jebel Zawiye until after the middle of the 5th century. The house No. 17 below dates from the 6th century.

The residences # 2 and # 9 also had a porch to the south. From No. 2, a column with capital and Architravstein and the façade have been preserved up to the upper cornice. At number 9, two lower column with architrave and the north- west and east parts of the outer walls. The Capitals are Tuscan varieties.

A special Serjillas are in addition to some small windows, framed by a profile round niches in the outer walls, in the well- lamps were asked.

Church

The three-aisled basilica of Serjilla corresponds in size and shape of the apse of the church of the neighboring towns and Dalloza Muglaya. In the six pillars of the nave walls were high " arcuated lintels " ( Architravsteine ​​that are carved arched at the bottom). There were two entrances in the south wall, two in the north wall and at least one door on the west side. In each case, a door in the south and the north had a portico.

The semicircular apse was within a straight on the outside east wall and flanked by lateral rectangular side rooms. The northern of the two served as Martyrion ( relic chamber ), the southern side room was another connected by a door to the side aisle and directly to the chancel and is therefore identified as diaconicon. At least for this one adjoining room - in other comparable churches (as in Jerada ) for both - is assured an original two-storey height.

In a later phase, the north side and the local apse adjoining room received a transeptartige extension. From the walls of the southern part of the apse remained up to the level of Apsisinnengesimses, get the outer walls of the Martyrions, the eastern part of the south facade up to the eaves and some stone courses of the north wall. Lying on the ground five Tuscan capitals were found, four of them with profiled and a smooth echinus. Butler dated the church in the mid-5th century and the extensions at the end.