iaconissa. Both
archivolts were originally coloured, the background blue, the carved
ornament gilt. The use of figures in the decoration of the church is
remarkable. They are in bold relief and executed freely, but shown only
from the waist up. The windows, like those in the outer narthex, have a
central arch between two semi-circles (Fig. 63).

[Illustration: PLATE LXXXVII.
S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA. INTERIOR CORNICE OVER MAIN DOOR
OF THE CHURCH.]

[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA. ARCHIVOLT ON THE NORTH SIDE OF
THE PARECCLESION.]

[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA. WINDOW HEADS IN THE CENTRAL
APSE.
_To face page 310._]

Two passages, which cut through the north wall, lead from the
parecclesion to the church. Off the passage to the west is a small
chamber whose use is not apparent. It may be simply a space left over
when the chapel was added. Higher up, in the thickness of the wall,
about ten feet from the floor, and a little above the springing level of
the vaulting in the parecclesion, is a long, narrow passage, lighted by
a window at the east end, and covered by a small barrel vault, corbelled
at the springing, on two courses of stone and three courses of brick
laid horizontally, thus narrowing the space to a considerable degree.
From this corbelling spring the vaulting courses, which are steeply
inclined and run from both ends to the centre, where the resultant
diamond-shaped opening is filled in with horizontal courses (Fig. 48).
On the north side of the passage is a broad opening roughly built up,
but which seems originally to have communicated with the south cross
arm. The opening is almost central to the cross-arm, and is directly
above the doors leading from the church to the parecclesion.

The exterior of the parecclesion and the outer narthex are treated with
arcades in two orders of the usual type. On the piers of the arcades are
semicircular shafts which in the parecclesion rise to the cornice, but
on the west front stop at the springing course. Here they may have
supported the wooden roof of a cloister or porch. The apse of the
parecclesion has five sides with angle shafts and niches, alternately
flat and concave in three stories. The north wall is a fine example of
simple masonry in stripes of brick and stone, and with small archings
and zigzag patterns in the spandrils of the arches.

Below the parecclesion are two long narrow cisterns having their
entrance on the outsi