FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  
EOTOKOS PAMMAKARISTOS, FETIYEH JAMISSI The Byzantine church, now Fetiyeh Jamissi, overlooking the Golden Horn from the heights of the Fifth Hill, was the church of the Theotokos Pammakaristos (the All Blessed), attached to the monastery known by that name. Regarding the identity of the church there can be no manner of doubt, as the building remained in the hands of the Greek community for 138 years after the conquest, and was during that period the patriarchal cathedral. The questions when and by whom the church was founded cannot be so readily determined. According to a manuscript in the library of the Greek theological college on the island of Halki (one of the small group of islands known as the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmora), an inscription in the bema of the church ascribed the foundation of the building to John Comnenus and his wife Anna.[215] The manuscript perished in the earthquake which reduced the college to a heap of ruins in 1894, but the inscription had fortunately been copied in the catalogue of the library before that disaster occurred. It read as follows: [Greek: Ioannou phrontisma Komnenou tode Annes te rhizes Doukikes tes syzygou. hois antidousa plousian, hagne, charin taxais en oiko tou theou monotropous].[216] [Illustration: PLATE XXXVI. (1) S. MARY PAMMAKARISTOS, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST. (2) S. MARY PAMMAKARISTOS, FROM THE WEST. _To face page 138._] The legend cannot refer to the Emperor John Comnenus (1118-1143), for his consort was neither named Anna nor related to the family of Ducas. She was a Hungarian princess, who, on becoming the emperor's bride, assumed the name Irene. Mr. Siderides, therefore, suggests that the persons mentioned in the inscription were that emperor's grandparents, the curopalates and grand domestic John Comnenus and his wife, the celebrated Anna Dalassena, who bore likewise the title of Ducaena. In that case, as the curopalates and grand domestic died in 1067, the foundation of the church cannot be much later than the middle of the eleventh century. But whether the term [Greek: phrontisma] should be understood to mean that the church was founded by the illustrious persons above mentioned, or was an object already in existence upon which they bestowed their thought and care, is not quite certain. Mr. Siderides is prepared to adopt the latter meaning, and the architecture of the church allows us to assign the foundation of the buildin
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
church
 

PAMMAKARISTOS

 

inscription

 

Comnenus

 

foundation

 
manuscript
 
founded
 

library

 
college
 

mentioned


persons

 

Siderides

 
curopalates
 

domestic

 
emperor
 

phrontisma

 
building
 
overlooking
 

Jamissi

 

assumed


Golden

 

Fetiyeh

 

JAMISSI

 

FETIYEH

 

celebrated

 

Dalassena

 

Byzantine

 

grandparents

 

princess

 

suggests


Hungarian

 
legend
 

heights

 

Emperor

 

related

 
family
 

consort

 
Ducaena
 

thought

 
EOTOKOS

bestowed
 

existence

 
assign
 
buildin
 

architecture

 

meaning

 
prepared
 

object

 
middle
 

eleventh