TheChurch of St. Polyeuctus (Ancient Greek:Ἅγιος Πολύευκτος,romanized: Hagios Polyeuktos;Turkish:Ayios Polieuktos Kilisesi) was an ancientByzantine church inConstantinople (nowIstanbul,Turkey) built by the noblewomanAnicia Juliana and dedicated toSaint Polyeuctus. Intended as an assertion of Juliana's ownimperial lineage, it was a lavishly decorated building, and the largest church of the city before the construction of theHagia Sophia. It introduced the large-scale use ofSassanid Persian decorative elements, and may have inaugurated the new architectural type ofdomedbasilica, perfected in the later Hagia Sophia.
Little is known of the church's history after its construction. The building survived until the 11th century, after which it fell into decay, while several architectural elements were removed and reused in Constantinople and other cities. After being built over in theOttoman period, the site of the church was rediscovered during excavations in the 1960s. The area, directly opposite the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Hall, is now a preserved archaeological site open to visitors, although the sculptures have been removed to theIstanbul Archaeological Museum.
The church was commissioned by the noblewomanAnicia Juliana,descendant of severalWestern emperors, and was constructed between 524 and 527, during the reign ofJustin I (r. 518–527). It was meant to replace an earlier church, built byEudocia, wife ofTheodosius II and Juliana's great-grandmother, to enshrine the relic skull ofSaint Polyeuctus.[1][2] The new church was thought to have been the largest in Constantinople before the building of theHagia Sophia by Justin's nephew and heir,Justinian I (r. 527–565).[3]
In two laudatoryepigrams (together 76 lines) inscribed on the walls of the church and preserved in its entirety in a medieval manuscript (Anthologia Graeca, I.10),[4] Juliana compares herself to past emperorsConstantine I andTheodosius II as a monumental builder, and claims to have surpassedSolomon'sTemple, on whose proportions the new church was allegedly based. The building constituted thereby a direct challenge to the prestige and authority of the low-bornreigning dynasty, and it may have been one of the reasons for the massive scale of Justinian's reconstruction of theHagia Sophia a few years later.[5] In light of this rivalry, it is perhaps no coincidence that Justinian too, when he beheld the completed Hagia Sophia, is said to have cried out: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee."[6] The importance of the Solomonic allusions is however questioned by some scholars, who see the church more as a statement of the imperial prestige of theOld Roman aristocracy, from which Juliana descended, and ofChalcedonian orthodoxy, which she had championed during the reign of theMonophysite emperorAnastasius I (r. 491–518).[7] A further aspect of the antagonism with Justinian however is evidenced by a tale recorded byGregory of Tours: shortly after his accession, Justinian called upon the aged Juliana to contribute a part of her large fortune to the state treasury. After stalling for time, she had her gold melted down and fashioned into plates, with which she adorned the interior of the roof of the newly built church of St. Polyeuctus, thus preserving it from the emperor's avarice.[8]
The church survived until the 11th century, when it was abandoned. Thereafter it was liberally plundered for sculptures and other architectural elements (spolia) by both the Byzantines and, after thesack of the city in 1204, by theCrusaders. Several pieces from St. Polyeuctus were reused in other sacral buildings of Constantinople/Istanbul, for example the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator (the modernZeyrek Mosque), theFenari Isa Mosque and theKoca Mustafa Pasha Mosque. But other parts of the architectural sculpture of the church was spread throughout the Mediterranean to places likeVenice,Milan,Barcelona andVienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum).[9] The most famous examples are the so-calledPilastri Acritani ("Pillars ofAcre") that stand atSt Mark's Basilica, Venice, since the 13th century.[10]
The site of the church, in the Saraçhane quarter (the ancient Constantinianae), was gradually occupied by houses and a mosque in theOttoman period. In 1940, the area was leveled, and in 1960, during construction of the intersection of the Șehzadebași Caddesi and Atatürk Bulvari roads, excavations began.[11]Brick vaults and pieces ofProconnesian marble sculpture were discovered, among them fragments of the monumental epigram adorning the church. These fragments, in conjunction with references to the approximate location of church in Byzantine texts concerning the imperial processions on theMese avenue, allowed a secure identification.[2][8] The site was extensively excavated between 1964 and 1969 by archaeologists under the direction of Dr. Nezih Firatli from theIstanbul Archaeological Museum andMartin Harrison of theDumbarton Oaks Institute.[11] The area, directly opposite the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Hall, is now a preserved archaeological site open to visitors, although the sculptures have been removed to theIstanbul Archaeological Museum.[8]
The remains of the church were damaged by homeless drug addicts who lit fires after cutting through the surrounding fence to sleep there.[12]
Despite its architectural prominence, very little is known of the church's history and its precise architecture. Most of the information on the church's original appearance is derived from the epigram in honour of Juliana and her family, which was inscribed in pieces in various parts of the church.[8] The epigram claims that the church was laid out as areplica of the ancient Jewish Temple with the precise proportions given in the Bible for theTemple of Solomon, and using theroyal cubit as a unit of measure, as in its model.[13][14] Martin Harrison, the site's chief excavator, has reconstructed the church as a roughly squarebasilica, ca. 52 m long on the sides, with a central nave and two sideaisles, fronted by anarthex and preceded by a largeatrium of 26 m length. To the north of the atrium, remains of another building have been identified as either the church'sbaptistery or Juliana's palace.[11] The atrium itself contained the first of the two epigrams of the church.[15]
An oval substructure in the building's center indicates the position of theambon, while strong foundations throughout the building indicate, according to Harrison, the presence of adome, bringing the estimated height of the building to over 30 m. The area of thealtar was not sufficiently excavated, and its shape remains unknown.[16] The possible presence of a dome, although not universally accepted, is of major importance, since it would mean that it was St. Polyeuctus, and not Justinian's churches (Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the Hagia Sophia), which first combined the traditionalbasilica with a dome.[17] From the epigram, we know that the interior featured two storeys with colonnades and galleries. Based on the epigram and the substructures, Harrison also posited the existence of a pair of two-storeyexedrae, composed of three niches with a pier in between, on the northern and southern sides of the ambo. The spaces around the domed westernbay would have been covered withbarrel orcross-vaults.[18]
The interior decoration was extraordinarily rich.[11] The walls were decorated with marble, the roof was gilded, while thenarthex featured a depiction of the baptism ofConstantine the Great.[8] Fragments of ivory, amethyst, gold and colored glass, originally inlaid in the marble sculptures, have also been found at the site, as well as fragments ofmosaics.[11] The deliberate evocation of the Solomonic Temple was further reinforced by the preponderance of motifs such aspalm trees,pomegranates andlilies in the church's decoration.[14] A notable characteristic, which has not been attested before in Constantinopolitan art and architecture, is the extensive use ofSassanid Persian decorative motifs such as friezes of running palmette and pomegranate leaves or symmetric geometric and vegetal patterns. Persian motifs became increasingly popular in the 6th century, and were also used in the decoration of the Hagia Sophia.[19] Another exceptional find are ten relief plaques bearing the images ofChrist, theVirgin Mary and theApostles; such images are very rare due to the destruction of human representations in theIconoclasm of the 8th and 9th centuries.[20]
One of the largest decorative marble remains of the site is the niche-head pieces. These massive pieces of marble consist of a concave segment with a large frontal peacock carved in the center, tail fanned out proud. The second epigram of the church runs along the semicircle of the carving. Surrounding the peacocks are the spandrels filled with grape vines and leaves.[21] The inscription's letters are raised 11 cm high, and surrounded by realistic grape vines. The detail involved in every individual leaf is remarkable. Each leaf has visible veins, some edges of the leaves are frayed and torn, and the artist even took the time to layer the design, pulling some leaves forward, and carving others in the background, giving the sense of depth.[22] Martin Harrison notes that this workmanship is all done by the artist’s eye, and with no use of a constant measure, as indicated by the marks made by the chisel, minute irregularities, and slight bends in the lattice work. This area was originally painted in vibrant colors. The primary colors used were blues, greens, and some purples. These colors are difficult to find or make and show Anicia Juliana’s power in the decorative aspect of the structure. The background to vines and letters was a bright blue. The peacocks—associated with the goddessHera and royalty in Antiquity and symbolizing renewal and rebirth for Christians[23] —adorned with carved necklaces, were painted in blues, greens and gold. Due to the empty cavities in the eyes of the remaining bird head pieces, green glass was used for the pupils.[24] They also held chains to suspend something. Connor suggests due to their location, a lamp is a believable use for the chains in their beaks.[23]
Media related toChurch of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople at Wikimedia Commons41°00′50″N28°57′11″E / 41.014°N 28.953°E /41.014; 28.953
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