Zur Kirche auf einem Kupferstich von Gugas İnciciyan und zum Standort der Chalke-Kirche

Abstract

English Summary The main focus of this article is a church, the picture of which is shown on a gravure by Gugas İnciciyan and called Arslanhane (Menagerie)/Nakkaşhane (House of painters). The church has a central dome, an apsis and a semi dome at the west side and looks like a little model of the Hagia Sophia. It was erected above an other building with a central arch. This resembles descriptions of the Chalke gate and the Chalke church in several written sources. Some chraracteristic marks of İnciciyan's church can also be discovered on some other drawings from various artists (Matrakçi Nasuh 1537; Melchior Lorichs, 1559; Cornelius Loos, 1710). A comparison with them helps us to localise it on the southern side of the former university building of Gaspare Fossati. Written sources inform us that the so called Arslanhane/Nakkaşhane of Inciciyan was not the only the building, which was converted to a menagerie. The church of Johannes in the Diippion and an other building, near the southwest corner of the Hagia Sophia were also used as menagerie during the Ottoman period. Especially the second one can be seen on various drawings. In our opinion Mango's identification of a church drawn by Willey Reveley (1786) with the Chalke, must be reviewed, since it was probably that of Theotokos Varaniotissa, which was renewed in the late Byzantine era.

The Monastery of Stoudios in the 15th Century

“…The description of a monastery dedicated to Saint John found in the account of the Spanish ambassador Clavijo, which was traditionally thought to refer to our monastery, has now been dissociated from Stoudios and attributed to Saint John at Dihippion, near the Hippodrome. 54 However, some issues about this description still remain open and it is worth re-examining the arguments in favor of and against identifying the church mentioned in the passage in question with Saint John of Stoudios. Clavijo mentions the church of Saint John (it is unclear which Saint John it was dedicated to, the Baptist or the Theologian) after the monastery of the Virgin Peribleptos.…”