Through the Outer Gardens of the Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 91

that are now extant in the city. Unfortunately, the one here has been
rather drastically altered, for the whole of the inner peristyle is Turkish
as well as a good many bays of the outer. But most of the outward
walls are Byzantine; and curiously irregular they are, the northern
portico being considerably longer than the southern so that the west
wall runs at an angle. In the south-east corner, a short flight of steps
leads to a door that communicated with buildings to the south, the
ruins of which will be described presently. Haghia Eirene now serves
as a concert hall for many of the musical events produced in the
Istanbul International Festival; it makes a superb setting for these
performances, and the acoustics of the old church are excellent.
If we leave Haghia Eirene and walk back through the garden
behind the apse we can examine the ruins to the south of the
church. (These are obscured by a fence and are not officially open
to the public, but one can still view the ruins discretely.) These
ruins, which were first excavated in 1946, are almost certainly the
remains of the once-famous Hospice of Samson. Procopius informs
us that between Haghia Sophia and Haghia Eirene “there was a
certain hospice, devoted to those who were at once destitute and
sufering from serious illness, namely those who were sufering the
loss of both property and health. This was erected in early times by a
certain pious man, Samson by name.” Procopius then goes on to say
that the Hospice of Samson was destroyed by fire during the Nika
Revolt, along with the two great churches on either side of it, and
that it was rebuilt and greatly enlarged by Justinian. Unfortunately,
the excavations were never carried far enough to make clear the plan
of the Hospice. One can make out a courtyard opposite the atrium
of Haghia Eirene, where some columns and capitals (which don't
seem to fit) have been set up again. To the east is a complex series of
rooms, including a nympheaeum and a small cistern, some of them
with opus sectile floors. There is a broad corridor between the Hospice
and Haghia Eirene and to the east a vaulted ramp which may have
given access to the galleries of the church. From the masonry and the
capitals it would appear that the major part of the work is of the time
of Justinian and doubtless belongs to the reconstruction mentioned
by Procopius. It is clear that this building connected directly with