Chora Museum:
The building
that is located in the Edirnekapı neighborhood of İstanbul and called the
“Chora Museum” (Kariye Müzesi) is a church building that constitutes the center
of the Chora Monastery, which was a great building complex in the Eastern Roman
Empire period, and it was dedicated to Jesus Christ. Since it stood outside of
the city walls built by Constantine, the building was called “Chora”, which
means “in the country” or “outside of the city” in Greek.
Although the exact construction date of the building is unknown,
according to the description of Symeon the Metaphrast, an author and saint who
lived in the late 10th century, the region where the Chora
monastery was located began to gain importance as a holy cemetery (necropolis)
when the relics of Saint Babylas, who had been martyred in the early periods of
Christianity, in 298, together with his 84 disciples, in Nicomedia (İznik),
were buried here in the early 4th century.
The Chora monastery was rebuilt in the 6th century,
in 536, by the Emperor Justinian (527-565) on the cemetery that was considered
holy, on a chapel that had been ruined. On the other hand, according to the
unproven claim on the page 229 of the calendar of Byzantine feasts written by
Manuel Gedeon, the construction of the monastery had been initiated by
Theodoros, the uncle of Justinian’s wife Theodora, in the 6th century, but it had been devastated by
an earthquake that occurred on October 6, 557, and the emperor had built a
larger monastery on the site of the former one.
Afterwards, the monastery was used as a burial area for prominent
persons. When the Patriarch Germanus who died in 740 was buried here, the
monastery appeared for the first time in written sources, and its degree of
holiness increased, when Theophanes, Metropolitan of Nicaea, who died in the 9th century, also was buried here. The
building was destructed in the Iconoclastic period (711-843) and it was
reconstructed in different periods. According to archaeological studies carried
out between 1947 and 1958, there were five different construction periods here,
and those periods witnessed in the 11th, 12th and
14th centuries should have been the periods
of large-scale constructions or restorations.
The only surviving element originating from the earliest period of
the building that lasted until the 9th century
is the substructure on the east side. This substructure, which originates from
the 5th or 6th centuries
as indicated by its masonry, had not been built as a crypt, but it was used
later as a burial place, as indicated by the tombs uncovered. At the end of the
Iconoclastic period, after the Council of Nicaea in 843, Michael of Synkellos,
who was appointed the high priest of the monastery, rebuilt the monastery
completely by organizing a large construction campaign.
The remains of this structure built in the 9th century
can only be seen today at the eastern end of the church. The tomb covered by a
barrel vault beneath the naos covering dates from this period.
During the Comneni period (1081-1185), since the Great Palace was abandoned
and the religious ceremonies were held in the Chora Monastery Church that was
close to the new imperial residence at the Palace of Blachernae, the church
gained in importance. In the last quarter of the 11th century,
Maria Doukaina, the mother-in-law of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118),
built a new church upon the ruins of the Chora Monastery. The remains of this
building can be seen at the lover parts of the naos walls, under the marble
coverings. Since almost no part of its superstructure has survived, the exact
form of the building is unknown.
Isaac
Komnenos, the younger son of Alexios I, rebuilt a large part of the monastery
in 1120. The former three apses were replaced by a single and large apse, the
relatively small dome supported by four columns was enlarged and supported by
four corner pillars, the arches were narrowed, and thus, a more monumental
interior space was created.
There is
almost no information about the Chora Monastery during the Latin occupation
between 1204 and 1261, but considering the large-scale construction of
Metochites, the monastery seems to have been devastated during the Latin
occupation.
It is known that the huge earthquake of 1296 devastated the
monastery. Patriarch Athanasius I, who resided in the Chora Monastery in the
early 14th century, mentions the very bad
condition of the monastery.
During the
reign of Andronikos II (1282-1328), although the empire experienced economic
difficulties in general, there was also a community of wealthy aristocrats,
which supported artistic and scientific activities. In this period, Theodore
Metochites almost reconstructed the Chora Monastery and established a very
large and rich library inside the monastery. For the Byzantine aristocracy,
building or repairing a religious institution was considered as a source of
prestige in this world, and as a very important investment for the afterlife,
before God.
Theodore
Metochites was the son of an aristocratic family, born in 1270 in
Constantinople. His father served as Michael VIII Palaiologos’ ambassador at
the Papacy. After the dethronement of Michael VIII in 1283, the Metochites
family was exiled. During their period of exile, Theodore Metochites studied
the Hellenistic trivium and quadrivium, and he was additionally trained in ancient
philosophy and theology. In 1290, he was accepted to the court of Emperor
Andronicus II, and he became a senator and the Logothetes, the Byzantine
official responsible for the treasury, who was the highest official after the
Emperor. He even established relationship with the imperial family by making
her daughter marry Ioannes Palaiologos, the nephew of the Emperor. In 1316, he
was appointed by the Emperor as ‘ktetor’ (donor) for the restoration of the
Chora Monastery that was under the protection and directorship of the court.
When the restoration of the monastery was completed in 1321, he was granted the
title of Grand Logothete; i.e., the most important title granted by the court.
This was stated via the gilded inscription on a green surface on the dyed
capitals of the two marble frames of the large window in the southern typhanon
of the naos. The inscription on one side of the left capital reads “ktetor”,
the inscription on the other side of this capital reads “Theodore”, the
inscription on one side of the other capital reads “logothetes”, and the
inscription on the other side of this capital reads “Metochites”. Metochites
was proud of the monastery he had built and of the large library he had
established inside this monastery in particular. Although there is no definite
archaeological evidence about the building of this library, both the poems of
Metochites and the letters he sent to the priests of the monastery from exile
indicate that there had been such a library inside the monastery. The library
of the Chora Monastery is referred as one of the most important libraries of
the Constantinople of the Palaiologan period.
The
renovations undertaken by Metochites were comprehensive. The main dome of the
church, the two-storied structure (annex) added to the north, the inner and
outer narthexes and the chapel (parecclesion) added to the south, and
additionally the marble covering plates and mosaics of the naos, the mosaic
decorations of the narthexes and the frescoes of the additional chapel were
built by Metochites.
Metochites,
who was a senior bureaucrat, wanted his reputation to survive after his death.
His choice of rebuilding the Chora Monastery and furnishing its library
indicates that as a good Christian, he was worrying about the afterlife as
well. The rich library was both to transfer his reputation in this world to the
next generations and to make him appreciated by God thanks to his great good
work.
Metochites
was a good Christian, but not a sectarian. He carefully avoided conflicts with
the church. He did not prefer to discuss religious issues, and confined himself
to being faithful.
When Emperor
Andronikos II was dethroned in 1328, Theodore Metochites was forced into exile
in Didymoteicho, Thrace, by the new emperor, lived two years in exile, and he described
his painful experiences and exile years in his poems that had very complicated
literary plots.
When he was
allowed to return to Constantinople with the help of his son-in-law in 1330, he
went to the Chora Monastery and became a priest using his rights as the ktetor
of the monastery. He died in 1332 in the Chora Monastery and buried in the
grave niche in the parecclesion south to the church.
Metochites
was not only successful in the areas of literature and politics, but also in
developing architectural solutions for the Chora Monastery Church, in
decorating the monastery with brilliant and harmonious mosaics and frescoes,
and in organizing religious depictions in a chronological order and
iconographically. In this respect, he might be considered as the pioneers of a
new art movement in the Byzantine Empire, which was the contemporary of the
Renaissance movement initiated by Giotto (1266-1337) in Italy.
Another
feature distinguishing the Chora Church from the other churches of this period
is the depiction of the scenes from the life of Virgin Mary in chronological
order by using the Apocryphal Gospels, although these scenes are not included
in the four Canonical Gospels. Metochites added a mystical meaning to the name
of the church, ordered the mosaic on the entrance gate that is depicted as
“Chora (uterus, in the Latin language), the container of the uncountable, the
place where Jesus Christ fit into the uterus, where he incarnated”, dedicated
the church to Virgin Mary, and explained this in one of his poems as well.
In 1453,
when Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror (1451-1481) conquered İstanbul, the church
suffered no damage. After serving as a church for any years, it was converted
into a mosque during the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, by the Grand Vizier Hadım
(Eunuch) Ali Pasha (Atik Ali Pasha), and a madrasah (school) was added next to
it. In the Turkish period, the monasteries except this church were ruined and
disappeared in the course of time.
Besides the
reconstruction of the demolished dome and the repair of some damages caused by
earthquakes, the windows of the outer narthex were covered largely and a mihrab
was added to the naos. The sarcophagi in the tomb arcosolia were removed.
According to
the descriptions of travelers who visited this building, while it was serving
as a mosque, the mosaics of the building were covered with removable wooden
shutters.
In the first half of the 18th century,
a school and a soup kitchen were added to the building by Kızlarağası (“Chief
of the Girls”) Hacı Beşir Pasha (d. 1746). However, these annexes have not
survived.
The Chora
Mosque was converted into a mosque upon the decision of the Council of
Ministers dated 29/08/1945. This monumental museum, which is called the Chora
(Kariye) Museum today, is a quite attractive Eastern Roman building with both
its architecture and its mosaics and frescoes.
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