Church of St. Euphemia

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1 Ball Amanda, "", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Περίληψη : The church of St. Euphemia was re-discovered in 1939, when work on the nearby hippodrome exposed the structure. A section of the 5 th -c. palace of Antiochus, it was converted into a church in the early 7 th c. In the 13 th c. the church was redecorated with a fresco cycle depicting the life of the saint, of which 14 panels are preserved in situ. Χρονολόγηση 7 th -15 th c. Γεωγραφικός εντοπισμός Constantinople, Istanbul Τοπογραφικός εντοπισμός At the north-west end of the Hippodrome 1. Discovery and identification of the monument While demolishing an early prison structure to the north-west of the Hippodrome in 1939, Maarif Vekkloit discovered a martyrium of St. Euphemia. It was identified as such by a cycle of frescoes depicting the martyrdom of saint Euphemia of Chalcedon. 1 The site was taken over and excavated in the summer and autumn of 1942 by the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, under the direction of A.M. Schneider and the architect Bay Sedat Çetintas. Schneider s excavation diaries were lost before the findings could be published; therefore, although the final report produced by Naumann and Belting does provide information on the structure, it is (as Thomas Mathews points out) not a definitive report. 2 Later excavations, conducted by Duyuran between 1951 and 1952, found a column base in the portico of the church with an inscription identifying the site as the Palace of Antiochus. 3 The stamped bricks excavated at the site combined with literary evidence date the structure to some time after AD The church shows 6 th -c. stylistic features; however in literary sources this section of the palace is said to have been converted into a church so that the relics of saint Euphemia of Chalcedon would be transferred there from her church under pressure of the Persians, which points to an early 7 th -c. date (608/9 or 615 or 626, although in the Patria of Constantinople the church is wrongly attributed to Constantine I and the translation of the relics is set to the early 5 th c.) Remaining structure The existing structure consists of a series of standing walls that vary between one and three metres tall arranged in a hexagonal plan, with a large absidal niche on each side. Between the niches there were small circular porches. The entrance of the secular building was to the south; to the right of this entrance, at the east niche and in front of it, the bema was inserted. Another entrance was opened to the niche across from the sanctuary, while the older one remained in use, though narrowed down at some later point. The date of the opening of a new entrance at the west niche is uncertain, but since, along with the bema, it creates a new east-west axis (instead of the north-south axis of the secular building), Mathews assumes that it should be dated to the period of the conversion of the structure into a church. 6 In addition to these entrances, two more were opened in the circular porches flanking the apse of the sanctuary; they were eventually closed off with adjoining mausolea. 7 The existence of such auxiliary entrances flanking the sanctuary is common feature of Constantinopolitan Early Byzantine churches, and it should be associated with the demands of the liturgy in the Early Byzantine capital. 8 The excavations also brought to light remains of the synthronon, altar foundation, chancel barrier, and solea. It is possible that there had also been an ambo, although no evidence survives. These features conform to the arrangement of the sanctuary area as it is Δημιουργήθηκε στις 21/1/2017 Σελίδα 1/5

2 Ball Amanda, "", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια attested in other Early Byzantine churches in Constantinople. The sculptural fragments from the chancel barrier, such as the octagonal column bases and the chancel-slab decorations point to a 6 th -c. date, as does the decorative technique of inlaying glass paste in marble on columns and slabs. 9 On the other hand, the epistyle seems to have been Middle Byzantine and it is associated with a reworking of 797. During the Iconoclastic period the church was supposedly secularised and, according to the legend, Constantine V ( ) (or, according to another variation, his father, Leo III ( ) 10 had the relics thrown into the sea and the church converted into a store for arms and manure. The relics were miraculously saved and washed up, or brought to Lemnos, from where Eirene Athenaia brought them back to Constantinople. 11 This return of the relics probably evokes actual restoration of the church after Iconoclasm The frescoes A cycle of fourteen frescoes still survives in the south west part of the church, and can be viewed behind a protective shield. The frescoes depict episodes of the life and martyrdom of Euphemia of Chalcedon, in rectangular panels outlined by red lines. The frescoes date to the last decades of the 13 th c. and parallel, in terms of colors and style, the frescoes of the original program of St. Demetrios (the metropolitan church) of Mistra ( ) and those of the chapel of the Virgin Pammakaristos (c. 1310), which, though of a sligtly later date, follow an earlier style. 13 Some details, such as the use of different colours for rendering the contrast of light and shadow areas on the garments of the figures, remind even later developments of Palaiologan monumental painting in Mistra (such as the frescoes of Peribleptos, ). According to the stylistic trends of early Palaiologan painting, the figures in the frescoes of the Euphemia cycle are gaining in volume. In addition to this fresco cycle, there is also an unparalleled in Constantinople depiction of the martydom of forty Christian soldiers frozen to death in the Lake of Sevasteia (the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia) Evaluation The church of St. Euphemia is an important monument of Constantinopolitan religious architecture and art. Having been a secular palatial structure converted to a church, provides important evidence on the assimilation of the vocabulary of secular late antique architecture by the Early Byzantine religious architecture. Moreover, it has preserved traces of its internal arrangement as a church, thus offering a possible layout of the early constantnopolitan churches' liturgcal arrangement. Finaly, the 13 th -c. iconographc cycle of the martyrdom of Euphemia has no parallel in the art of the capital For a brief account on this saint, see Kazhdan, A., Patterson-Sevcenko, N., «Euphemia of Chalcedon,» in Kazhdan, A. (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (Oxford - New York 1991), pp Naumann, R., Belting, H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken (Berlin 1966), pp For Antiochus, a praepositus under Theodosios II, see Bardill, J., Greatrex, G., «Antiochus the Praepositus: A Persian Eunuch at the Court of Theodosius II,» Dumbarton Oaks Papers 50 (1997), pp Bardill, J., «The Palace of Lausus and Nearby Monuments in Constantinople: A Topographical Study,» American Journal of Archaeology (1997), p On the translation of the relics see Berger, A., "Die Reliquien der Heiligen Euphemia und ihre erste Translation nach Konstantinopel," Hellenika 39 (1988), pp For the sources on St. Euphemia of Constantinople, see Naumann, R., Belting, H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken (Berlin 1966), p. 23-7; Janin, R., La geographie ecclésiastique de l'empire byzantin, I: Le siège de Constantinople et le Patriarchat Oeucuménique, iii: Les Églises et les monastères (Paris ), pp Δημιουργήθηκε στις 21/1/2017 Σελίδα 2/5

3 Ball Amanda, "", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια 6. Mathews, T.F., The Early Churches of Constantinople. Architecture and Liturgy (University Pa. 1971), p Naumann, R., Belting, H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken (Berlin 1966), pp Mathews, T.F., The Early Churches of Constantinople. Architecture and Liturgy (University Pa. 1971), pp Naumann, R., Belting, H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken (Berlin 1966), pp Kazhdan, A., Patterson-Sevcenko, N., «Euphemia of Chalcedon,» in Kazhdan, A. (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (Oxford - New York 1991), pp Theophanes, Chronographia, I, ed. C. de Boor (Leipzig 1883, repr. Hildesheim 1980), pp ; Janin, R., La geographie ecclésiastique de l'empire byzantin, I: Le siège de Constantinople et le Patriarchat Oeucuménique, iii: Les Églises et les monastères (Paris ), p Naumann, R., Belting, H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken (Berlin 1966), pp Naumann, R., Belting, H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken (Berlin 1966), pp Naumann, R., Belting, H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken (Berlin 1966), pp Mathews, T.F., The Early Churches of Constantinople. Architecture and Liturgy (University Pa. 1971), p. 61. Βιβλιογραφία : Janin R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l empire byzantin, Ι. Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique 3: Les églises et les monastères, 2, Paris 1969 Naumann R., Belting H., Die Euphemia-Kirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul und ihre Fresken, Berlin 1966, Istanbuler Forschungen 25 Mathews T.F., The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul. A Photographic Survey, University Park London 1976 Mathews T.F., The Early Churches of Constantinople. Architecture and Liturgy, University Park, Pennsylvania London 1971 Bardill J., "The Palace of Lausus and Nearby Monuments in Constantinople: A Topographical Study", American Journal of Archaeology, 101:1, Jan. 1997, Greatrex G., Bardill J., "Antiochus the Praepositus: A Persian Eunuch at the Court of Theodosius II", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 50, 1997, Dark K.R., "Houses, streets and shops in Byzantine Constantinople from the fifth to the twelfth centuries", Jounral of Medieval History, 30, 2004, Kazhdan A., Patterson-Ševčenko N.P., "Euphemia of Chalcedon", A. Kazhdan et al. (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2, Oxford New York 1991, Schneider A.M., "Das Martyrion der Hl. Euphemia beim Hippodrom zu Konstantinopel", Byzantinische Δημιουργήθηκε στις 21/1/2017 Σελίδα 3/5

4 Ball Amanda, "", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Zeitschrift, 42, 1943, Schneider A.M., "Grabung im Bereich des Euphemia-Martyrions zu Konstantinopel", Achäologischer Anzeiger, 58, 1943, Berger A., "Die Reliquien der Heiligen Euphemia und ihre erste Translation nach Konstantinopel", Hellenika, 39, 1988, Δικτυογραφία : Hag. Euphemia en to Hippodromo Γλωσσάριo : ambo The elevated pulpit used for preaching in the church nave. apse An arched srtucture or a semi circular end of a wall. In byzantine architecture it means the semicircular, usually barrel vaulted, niche at the east end of a basilica. The side aisles of a basilica may also end in an apse, but it is always in the central apse where the altar is placed. It was separated from the main church by a barrier, the templon, or the iconostasis. Its ground plan on the external side could be semicircular, rectangular or polygonal. bema The area at east end of the naos in Byzantine churches, containing the altar, also referred to as the presbetery or hierateion (sanctuary). In these area take place the Holy Eucharist. chancel screen of presbytery A short barrier between the bema and the nave. It had originally the form of a parapet that was later made of stone or of marble. It is generally an element of early Christian religious architecture, and it appears on ground plans either as a linear structure or forming a Π. It consists of small columns or pillars in the interspace of which slabs are inserted. Crosses and floral patterns are usually used for the relief decoration of the screen. niche Semi-circular recess on the surface of the wall. solea A wide and oblong elevated passageway in front of the central opening of the chancel screen that reached until the ambo; there stood the deacons and the lectors during the Service. synthronon Rows of built benches, arranged in a semicircular tier like a theatre, in the apse of a church. On these benches the clergy sat during Divine Liturgy. The bishop sat on the cathedra at the top of the synthronon. Πηγές Theophanes, Chronographia, I, ed. C. de Boor (Leipzig 1883, repr. Hildesheim 1980), pp Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai, ed. Preger, T., Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum 1 (Leipzig 1901, repr. 1975), p. 22. Pseudo Kodinos, Patria Constantinopoleos, ed. Preger, T., Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum 2 (Leipzig 1907; repr. 1975), pp ; Παραθέματα Evidence on the translation of the relics of saint Euphemia in the Patria of Constantinople Δημιουργήθηκε στις 21/1/2017 Σελίδα 4/5

5 Ball Amanda, "", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν Μαρκιανὸν τὸν βασιλέα ἐγένετο Εὐτύχους τινὸς μαθητὴς ὀνόματι Ἄκατος, διάκονος ὑπάρχων τοῦ ναοῦ τῆς ἁγίας Εὐφημίας ὃς ἰδὼν ἡττηθέντας τοὺς κατὰ Εὐτύχην κατέλαβε Σεραπίωνα τὸ κάστρον τοῦτο δὲ ἦν ἓν τῶν Περσῶν, Ῥήγιον τοὔνομα. Ἐμήνυσε δὲ Περιττίῳ τῷ καστροφύλακι τὰ τῆς ἀσθενείας τῶν ἐν Καλχηδόνι οἰκούντων ὃς παρευθὺ τοῦ ἅρματος ἐπιβὰς οὕτως γὰρ τοῖς ἐν Ῥηγίῳ καστροφύλαξι πέφυκε μετὰ ἑβδομήκοντα χιλιάδων ἔρχεται ἐπὶ τὴν Καλχηδονίων μητρόπολιν οἱ δὲ ἐκεῖσε προγνόντες ἔφυγον ἐν τῷ Βυζαντίῳ ἄραντες μεθ ἑαυτῶν καὶ τὰ τίμια λείψανα τῆς ἁγίας Εὐφημίας Pseudo Kodinos, Patria Constantinopoleos, ed. Preger, T., Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum 2 (Leipzig 1907; repr. 1975), pp False attribution of the church of St. Euphemia to Constantine I in the Patria of Constantinople Ὁ μέγας Κωνσταντῖνος ἀνήγειρεν τῆς ἁγίας Εὐφημίας τῆς πανευφήμου τὸν ναὸν ἐν τῷ Ἱπποδρομίῳ τιμήσας αὐτὸν διὰ πολυτελοῦς ὕλης παρελθόντων δὲ υμβʹ χρόνων, ἐλθόντος τοῦ μισοθέου Κοπρωνύμου, ἀρμαμέντον καὶ κοπροθέσιον τοῦτον ἐποίησεν καὶ τὸ λείψανον τῆς ἁγίας σὺν τῇ λάρνακι εἰς τὸν βυθὸν τῆς θαλάσσης ἀπέρριψεν μετὰ δὲ χρόνους λζʹ Εἰρήνη ἡ εὐσεβεστάτη ἄνασσα ἡ Ἀθηναία τοῦτον πάλιν ἀνῳκοδόμησεν καὶ τὸ λείψανον εὑροῦσα ἔφερεν. Pseudo Kodinos, Patria Constantinopoleos, ed. Preger, T., Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum 2 (Leipzig 1907; repr. 1975), pp The legends surrounding the alleged secularization of the church by Constantine V and its restoration by Eirene Athenaia τοιοῦτον γοῦν τι καὶ εἰς τὸ τιμαλφέστατον λείψανον τῆς πανευφήμου μάρτυρος Εὐφημίας ὁ ἀνόσιος βασιλεὺς διεπράξατο βυθίσας αὐτὸ σὺν τῇ λάρνακι, μὴ φέρων ὁρᾷν μυροδοτοῦσαν αὐτὴν ἐπὶ παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ ἐλέγχουσαν αὐτοῦ τὰ κατὰ τῶν πρεσβειῶν <τῶν ἁγίων> ληρήματα. ἀλλ ὁ θεὸς ὁ φυλάσσων τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν εὐαρεστούντων αὐτῷ, κατὰ τὰ λόγια, ἀσινὲς τοῦτο διεφύλαξε πάλιν ἀναδείξας αὐτὸ ἐν τῇ Λήμνῳ νήσῳ. διὰ γὰρ νυκτερινῆς ὁράσεως κείμενον ἀρθῆναι προσέταξε καὶ φυλάττεσθαι. ἐπὶ δὲ Κωνσταντίνου καὶ Εἰρήνης τῶν εὐσεβῶν βασιλέων, ἰνδικτιῶνι δʹ, μετὰ τῆς πρεπούσης τιμῆς ἐπανῆλθεν ἐν τῷ τεμένει αὐτῆς, ὃ αὐτὸς μὲν ὡς τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἐχθρὸς κοινώσας ἀρμαμέντον καὶ κοπροθέσιον ἐποίησεν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἀνακαθήραντες τοῦτο πάλιν καθιέρωσαν πρὸς ἔλεγχον μὲν τῆς τούτου ἀθεότητος, ἔνδειξιν δὲ τῆς τούτων θεοσεβείας. Theophanes, Chronographia, I, ed. C. de Boor (Leipzig 1883, repr. Hildesheim 1980), pp Χρονολόγιο ca. 429: Palace of Antiochus built early 7 th c.: the northeast section of the palace converted to the church of Hagia Euphemia. Translation of the relics of Euphemia of Chalcedon in Constantinople under Constantine V ( ): the church allegedly secularized ca. 797: restoration of the church late 13 th c.: fresco cycle of the life and martyrdom of saint Euphemia added in the southwest section of the church 1939: the structure rediscovered in Istanbul 1942: A.M. Schneider begins excavations at the site Δημιουργήθηκε στις 21/1/2017 Σελίδα 5/5