Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Kariye Camii
The Church of St. Saviour in Chora, called in Turkish Kariye Camii,
is after Haghia Sophia the most interesting Byzantine church in the
City; not so much for the building itself, pretty as that is, as because
of the superb series of mosaics and frescoes which it preserves and
which have been magnificently restored and cleaned by the Byzantine
Institute of America*. The name of the church “in Chora” means
in the country because the very ancient monastery to which it was
attached was outside the Constantinian walls; later when it was
included within the Theodosian walls, the name remained (compare
St. Martin's in the Fields or St. Germain des Près) but was given a
symbolic sense: Christ as the “country” or “land” of the Living and
the Blessed Virgin as the “dwelling-place” of the Uncontainable, as
they are referred to in the mosaics in the church.
No trace remains of the original ancient church, nor is anything
certain known about its origin. The present building in its first form
dates only from the late eleventh century and was built by Maria
Doukaina, mother-in-law of the Emperor Alexius I Comnenus,
between the years 1077 and 1081; it was probably of the “four-
column” type so popular at that time. But it did not last long in its
original form; perhaps because of the slipping of the foundations at
the east end, the apses appear to have collapsed, and the opportunity
was taken to remodel the building. At the east the present wide central
apse with its deep barrel-vault was erected; the walls of the nave were
retained, but the piers were added in the corners as supports for the
arches of a much larger dome; there was a narrow side chapel to the
south, traces of which remain in the passages and gallery between the
nave and the present, later, side chapel. This elaborate remodelling
was apparently carried out by Maria Doukaina's grandson, the
Sebastokrator Isaac Comnenus, third son of Alexius I, early in the
twelfth century.
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