BYZANTINE CHURCHES IN CONSTANTINOPLE.*
Ix the glorious apparel, of that King's daughter, the New Rome, her once Christian churches form but a very.small ornament. The King's daughter that conquers all con- querors was never more mysterious, never more seductive, never more forlorn than now. But- in.- the mists that shroud the iepOir 01400 Booldpou 48E stoXesrar, it is- to the "great pearly ,dornes,",the minarets, the gleaming white -marbles, the towers of Genoa and the Seraskerat that fancy- turns. In the landscape even St. Sophia occupies no place like the cathedral of a French or English town. It is not so obvious as to dispense' with identification. Yet St. Sophia so far excels all the "churches "of Constantinople as to leavelittle roomfor the others in the traveller's imagination. He may be taken to see St. 'Sa'viour's in the Chore (St. Saviour's-in-the-Fields), but he will probably -come away with a feeling that the church and: the mosaics have been overrated. St. Irene, with its pink
• By,,antiske Churches in Constantinople. By Professor Alexander van Yansagen... London; Taaeinillan and to. (81s. ed.] - -
colour-wash,- may -have been pointed out to him, (though he never was allowed to enter it); he may- have extended his
research to. Sergius and Bacchus, the "little St. Sophia" on
the Marmora banks; and after that. there are for him no more churches. Even their names. do not exist, for, him. And yet how beautiful many. of their names are; St. Saviour the All- ruling, St. Saviour watching over all, St. Nary the All-blessed, St. Mary the All-stainless, St. Mary oft the Deaconess, St. Mary that guides to Victory, St. Andrew of. the Judgment, the Church of "Myrrh and Oil," St. Theodosia,(pf. the roses), and many. others. But from the " sightseeing " paint of. view. this conclusion is reasonable. enough. The other churches (or their remains) ,are unimportant to the casual. observer. St. Sophia, in fact, embodies in itself all that, for ordinary purposes is worth seeing. It is as complete an epitome of Constantinople churches as the Acropolis. is. the all-sufficing embodiment. of Athena itself.
Professor van Millingen is under no illusions. He does not represent geese as swans, or, his churches as. cathedrals ; heats not extravagant in praise.; he-pursues. a just nre.an. between ecstasy-and mere cataloguing,. while by. his thoroughness he recognizes that he is writing for the cognoscente. The Churches. of Constantinople is indeed confessedly a book for the ecelegiologist. It is, inconceivable that it should appeal, to any wide public. But within these limits it, is excellent.
The author excludes St. Sophia. Thawritings. of. Salzenberg, Lethaby, and Swainson; have rendered superfluous, he modestly says, any further description of that great church. He refers especially to the "splendid and exhaustive mono- graph" of Antoniades. We shall not greatly exaggerate if. we: apply the same -epithets, to Professor, van Millingen's present work... The production of such a book is refreshing, and refleeta, credit on author and, publisher alike. It is impossible that either can. ha.ve. been actuated by-commercial motives. Books. like this are as far, removed from the hope of gain as is the keeping of peacocks.or a deer-park.
Thellat of churches is possibly exhaustive; their, collective: treatment is so complete as to be final. Professor van Millingen has associated with him Mr. Ramsay. Traquair, and Mr. W. S. George, and to their labours the book, owes: much of its architectural value. It is indeed extraordinarily. rich in architectural plans and- drawings. The photographio illustrations, are good, well chosen, end, numerous. Such a book is particularly valuable just. now. In his preface Professor van, Mlllingen writes : "Of the churches described by. Paspates, in his Byzantine Studies in. 1877, nine have either. disappeared. or lost more, of their original, features," But since this very preface was written other changes have taken place. They are not likely to be less frequent in future. and are always towards destruction.
Only those—and they, are very few.-,who.. have made, any study of - the churches of Stamboul can, properly appreciate the production of a book like this, No map of Stamboul ia available. Even the .fire insurance companies. (and every house is of wood and bean., an insurance plate) have no maps to guide them. There are few street names, in our sense. Houses have often to be identified- by, some characteristic feature or by their, proximity to some important building or landmark, Even if the existents • of a church is suspected it is difficult to." run it to earth." Explanations are uncertain; one is perpetually thrown off the, scent, not of ea purpose, but because even fluent Turkish cannot make Turks. under- stand, what it, is that we are seeking. Then when the building is found (it is often a disused mosque). the . doors are, probably locked. The hodja who keeps the keys lives, a long: way off. When his house is at last discovered, perhaps he has gone out for the afternoon, perhaps he:has gone to, visit relatives "at the back of KOeia." So the days are, wasted one after the other. And, again, when we have found.' the keys of our ideal "St. Mary of -the Seraphim," or "St. Tyro of the Golden:Hem," we can get no outside view of them. They are shut in by -houees, We must not profane the inner court of an absent craftsman- of Jthe.Amber-street, we may not- palm through even to study an-surly: apse. Yet what ecclesiologish would miss the romance* of church-hunting in Stamboul, the. long-deferred:hope of stumbling on some unknown architees tural. treasure? Mud, an& dogs, and the scorching of the long summer days, or the freezing. sleet of the short winter days, who would not .brave. them all in so. great a quest? Itisior Riches these,thatFrofessor van Millingen writes. Of the difficulties and of the surprising rewards that may attend church-hunting in Stamboul the building known as the Kalender Djamisi is an example. Nestling closely against the aqueduct of Valens, whose arches form such a magnificent background to the sunset views of Stamboul, it is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of Byzantine churches. Yet for two and a half centuries it had vanished from the memory even of the Greek residents. Gyllius visited and described it c. 1580, though without mentioning its dedication, then it lay perdu till Paspates "discovered" it in 1877. But even he could not obtain admission, and Dr. Freshfield was the first to set foot in it, in 1880. Modern archaeologists— and Professor van Millingen supports them—incline to identify it with the Church of St. Mary of the Deaconess, but further evidence is required before any very definite pronouncement is made.
An outstanding feature of the book is a full description of the Church of St. Irene, with photographs and a series of architectural plans. This, the largest of the Stamboul churches next to St. Sophia, has always been used by the Turks as an armoury, and till now has remained completely inaccessible. Salzenberg, indeed, made notes of it in 1848, but the opportunities afforded him for examination were so inadequate that his account is marred by serious mistakes. Professor van Millingen has been allowed by the courtesy of the "Byzantine Research Fund" to anticipate an exhaustive monograph on the church, which is being prepared for the Fund by Mr. W. S. George.
The name of St. Irene, like those of St. Sophia and St. Homonoia, is one of Constantine the Great's equivocal dedica- tions, given when he was uncertain alike of his own beliefs and of the permanence of Christianity. Perhaps it was dedicated to Peace, with a sigh of relief for that Pax Bomana which had fallen like a healing dew upon the Empire worn out by two decades of civil war. In historic interest St. Irene yields scarcely even to Saint Sophia itself ; indeed the two churches seem to have been considered to some extent as one sanctuary. St. Irene, 4) pe•yrfAn Rai wahalci, was the Court church, rich in pageants, in crownings and marriages, triumphs and tortures. In it centred the struggles of Iconoclasts and Iconodules, Arians and Orthodox, Empress and Patriarch. It ran with blood when Greens and Blues met in the awful riots of the Nika. It has been racked through the centuries by fire and earthquake. Before St. Sophia was, St. Irene stood as the Cathedral of Constantinople ; on the night that John Chrysostom was banished and St. Sophia burnt to the ground, St. Irene became again the Cathedral for eleven years while the greater church was re-building.
Constantine the Iconoclast changed the fragrant name of the church of the Myrelaion (the place of myrrh and oil) into the Psarelaion (the place of fish-oil). The retaliation of the Iconodules has pilloried- him for ever in history as Copronymus, Constantine the dung-scraper. Some sad photo- graphs of• the ruins of the Myrelaion, burnt since the body of this book was in print, show the value of such a record as Professor van Millingen presents. Destruction is still rife, the old ciaiyol 4413ot Kea cretcrets are not banished from Constantinople, and the owe?* irpecrsomfa Kazav still broods over all.
The Byzantine Churches of Constantinople strikes us as an advance, in accuracy and -completeness, on the same author's work upon the Walls of the city. For the present it may be considered exhaustive, but further discoveries are always possible in a place like Stamboul. More elaborate mono- graphs may perhaps be written on individual churches, but it is not probable that any better general survey will see the light., Professor van Millingen has finished a monument more durable than some of the buildings which he describes are likely to be.
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