Nea Ekklesia

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This article is about the Nea Ekklesia of Constantinople. For the namesake 6th-century church in Jerusalem, see
Nea Ekklesia of the Theotokos
.

The Nea Ekklēsia (

Palaiologan period. Used as a gunpowder magazine by the Ottomans
, the building was destroyed in 1490 after being struck by lightning. No traces of it survive, and information about it derives from historical accounts and depictions.

History

Gold solidus of Emperor Basil I, with his son Constantine and Empress Eudokia Ingerina

Emperor Basil I was the founder of the

Justinian, and initiated a great building program in Constantinople in emulation his great predecessor. The Nea was to be Basil's Hagia Sophia, with its very name, "New Church", implying the beginning of a new era.[1]

The church was built under the personal supervision of Basil,

St Nicholas.[2][5]

It is indicative of Basil's intentions for this church that he endowed it with its own administration and estates, on the model of the Hagia Sophia. During his and his immediate successors' reign, the Nea played an important role in palace ceremonies,

Palaiologan period until after the Ottoman conquest of the city. The Ottomans however used it for gunpowder storage. Thus in 1490, when the building was struck by a lightning, it was destroyed and subsequently torn down.[4] As a result, the only information we have about the church comes from literary evidence, especially the mid-10th century Vita Basilii, as well a few crude depictions in maps.[1]

Description

Map of the Great Palace district. The approximate location of the Nea Ekklēsia is marked on the southern end.

As noted, not much is known about the details of the structure. The church was built with five domes: the central dome was dedicated to Christ while the four smaller ones housed chapels of the four other saints to whom the church was dedicated. The exact arrangement of the domes and the type of the church are disputed.

Lips Monastery churches. Indeed, the widespread use of this type throughout the Orthodox world, from the Balkans to Russia, is commonly ascribed to the prestige of this imperial building.[12]

The church was the crowning achievement of Basil's building program, and he spared no expense to decorate it as lavishly as possible: other churches and structures in the capital, including the

fell to the Arabs.[13]

Basil's grandson, the Emperor

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, gives the following description of the church's decoration in a laudatory ekphrasis:[14]

This church, like a bride adorned with pearls and gold, with gleaming silver, with a variety of many-hued marble, with compositions of mosaic

tesserae, and clothing of silken stuffs, he [Basil] offered to Christ, the immortal Bridegroom. Its roof, consisting of five domes, gleams with gold and is resplendent with beautiful images as with stars, while on the outside it is adorned with brass that resembles gold. The walls on either side are beautified with costly marbles of many hues, while the sanctuary is enriched with gold and silver, precious stones, and pearls. The barrier that separates the sanctuary from the nave, including the columns that pertain to it and the lintel that is above them; the seats that are within, and the steps that are in front of them, and the holy tables themselves – all of these are of silver suffused with gold, of precious stones and costly pearls. As for the pavement, it appears to be covered in silken stuffs of Sidonian workmanship; to such an extent has it been adorned all over with marble slabs of different colors
enclosed by tessellated bands of varied aspect, all accurately joined together and abounding in elegance.

The atrium of the church lay before its western entrance, and was decorated with two fountains of marble and porphyry. Two porticoes ran along the northern and southern sides of the church up to the tzykanistērion, and on the seaward (southern) side, a treasury and a sacristy were built. To the east of the church complex lay a garden, known as mesokēpion ("middle garden").[15]

Relics

Along with the oratory of St Stephen in the

Daphne Palace and the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos, the Nea was the chief repository of holy relics in the imperial palace.[16] These included the sheepskin cloak of the prophet Elijah, the table of Abraham, at which he hosted three angels, the horn which the prophet Samuel had used to anoint David, and relics of Constantine the Great. After the 10th century, further relics were apparently moved there from other locations in the palace, including the "rod of Moses" from the Chrysotriklinos.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Stankovic (2008)
  2. ^ a b Mango (1986), p. 194
  3. ^ Magdalino (1987), p. 51
  4. ^ a b c Mango (1991), p. 1446
  5. ^ Ousterhout (2007), p. 34
  6. ^ Magdalino (1987), pp. 61–3
  7. ^ Magdalino (1987), p. 55
  8. ^ Mango (1986), p. 237
  9. ^ Ousterhout (2007), p. 140
  10. ^ Ousterhout (2007), p. 36
  11. ^ Mango (1976), p. 196
  12. ^ a b Mango (1986), p. 181
  13. ^ Treadgold (1995), p. 33
  14. ^ Ousterhout (2007), pp. 34–35
  15. ^ Mango (1986), pp. 194–196
  16. ^ Klein (2006), p. 93
  17. ^ Klein (2006), pp. 92–93

Sources

  • Klein, Holger A. (2006). Bauer, F.A. (ed.). "Sacred Relics and Imperial Ceremonies at the Great Palace of Constantinople" (PDF). BYZAS (5): 79–99. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2009.
  • ISSN 0378-8660
    .
  • ISBN 0-8109-1004-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  • ISBN 978-0-8020-6627-5
    .
  • ISBN 0-19-504652-8
    .
  • Ousterhout, Robert (1998). "Reconstructing ninth-century Constantinople". In L. Brubaker (ed.). Byzantium in the ninth century: dead or alive? Papers from the thirtieth spring symposium of Byzantine studies, Birmingham, March 1996. Aldershot. pp. 115–30.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Ousterhout, Robert (2007). Master Builders of Byzantium. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology.
    ISBN 978-1-934536-03-2
    .
  • Stankovic, Nebojsa (21 March 2008). "Nea Ekklesia". Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World, Constantinople. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
  • ISBN 0-8047-3163-2
    .

External links

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