the church of
Blood, and the adjoining street goes by the name Sanjakdar Youkousou,
the ascent of the standard-bearer,[482] terms which refer to the
desperate struggle between Greeks and Turks at this point on the morning
of the capture of the city.[483]

_Architectural Features_

Although the building has always been in Christian hands it has suffered
alterations almost more drastic than any undergone by churches converted
into mosques. The interior has been stripped of its original decoration,
and is so blocked by eikons, chandeliers, and other ornaments as to
render a proper examination of the church extremely difficult. In plan
the church is a domed quatrefoil building, the only example of that type
found in Constantinople. The central dome rests on a cross formed by
four semi-domes, which are further enlarged below the vaulting level by
three large semicircular niches. It is placed on a drum of eight concave
compartments pierced by windows to the outside circular and crowned with
a flat cornice. Externally the semi-domes and apse are five-sided. From
the interior face of the apse and on its northern wall projects a
capital, adorned with acanthus leaves, which, as it could never have
stood free in this position, probably formed part of an eikonostasis in
stone. The narthex is in three bays, the central bay being covered by a
barrel vault, while the lateral bays have low drumless domes on
pendentives. The entrance is by a door in the central bay, and from that
bay the church is entered through a passage cut in the central niche of
the western semi-dome, and slightly wider than the niche. The end bays
open, respectively, into the northern and southern semi-domes by
passages or aisles terminating in a diagonal arch. The arches between
these aisles and the western semi-dome are pierced, and thus isolate the
western dome piers. On the south the church has been greatly altered;
for the entire southern semi-dome and the southern bay of the narthex
have been removed and replaced by three aisles of two bays each. These
bays are equal in height, and are covered by cross-groined vaults with
strong transverse pointed arches supported on square piers, the whole
forming a large hall held up by two piers, and showing the distinct
influence of Italian Gothic work. This part of the building is modern.
On the eastern wall is a large picture of the Last Judgment.

The plan of this church may be compared with that of S. Nicholas Me