Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora (Kariye Camii), a Byzantine Jewel in Istanbul

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Chora Church, exterior, back view.

As Roy engages in the daunting task of sorting out our photographs, I asked him to share a few on my blog.

Here are a few of The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, a Byzantine Jewel, which Simon Jenkins of the Ship of Fools had suggested we see. I loved it.

Now over to Roy:

Chora Church is a small church some distance from the historic center of Istanbul, but the mosaics, regarded as the most beautiful surviving Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul,  were definitely one of the highlights of our visit. Being out of the way, it is usually not  very crowded, and being small allows a much closer view of the mosaics.  It was first a church, then a mosque, and now a museum.  I have divided the images into sections: exterior, major mosaics of Christ and the Virgin, smaller mosaics of the life of Christ, and the frescoes of the Parekklesion.  The last two are the most unusual, at least to the non-Byzantine viewer. [Read more…]

Images of Istanbul

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(A guest post from my husband, Roy)

A roundup of a few shorter visits — The Topkapi Palace ( that was suddenly closed as we arrived because of a sudden dust storm, that also closed souvenir sellers), the Grand Bazaar, Church of SS Sergius and Bacchus (now a Mosque, and called Small Haghia Sophia), the Basilica Cistern, and sights on the street.

Topkapi Palace (Entrance Only)

Entrance to Topkapi Palace Gardens
A row of tulips (Topkapi gardens)
Entrance of Topkapi Palace Enclosure
(see details below)

Alas we were at the exit very soon

Blue Mosque through the exit from Topkapi
An interesting building being build just outside the Palace
detail of above
Street light near the Blue Mosque
Anita and Irene in front of Hagia Sophia

Sweet temptation

healthier temptation

The Grand Bazaar is one of the world’s oldest and largest covered markets with 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops — we explored less than 1% before emerging with our booty.  The guidebook advised us not to miss the many surrounding shops, but we had had enough.  It is not a noisy Middle Eastern market with vendors hawking their wares, and is actually more peaceful than most Western shopping malls!

Goldsmith’s street
Souveniers
Ceramics of all sorts — wall tiles, table tops, clocks, bowls, plates, vases, figurines, …  All beautifully painted by hand or machine.
Lamps and textiles
The exit

Church of SS Sergius and Bacchus built by Justinian and converted to a mosque and now known as Little Hagia Sophia Mosque (Küçuk Ayasofya Camii) is in an unpromising residential area near our hotel

It looks like a Byzantine church on the outside

image credit

but like a mosque inside
Lovely soft carpet underfoot
A color scheme for the interior of the domes above the entrance

The Basilica Cistern  (Turkish: Yerebatan Sarayı – “Sunken Palace”, or Yerebatan Sarnıcı – “Sunken Cistern”), built by, you guessed it, Justinian.   The columns are 9 meters tall, and there are over 300 of them, so it is like a massive flooded crypt.  Now there are only a few feet of water, but someone has introduced goldfish.

Most of the columns aresmooth with an ornate capitol.  However, for reasons unknown, there are two with Medusa head bases and one carved column.   Ofcourse, these columns were not desiged to be see by the publish, so they were probably just left overs, and defectives.

Sideways Medusa head base
Inverted Medusa head base
Back at street level tulips everywhere

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