CHAPTER XII
THE CHURCH OF S. JOHN THE BAPTIST IN TRULLO, ACHMED PASHA MESJEDI
The identification of the church of S. John the Baptist in Trullo (Μονὴ τοῦ ἁγίου προφήτου προδρόμου Ἰωάννου τοῦ ἐν τῷ Τρούλλῳ) with the mosque of Achmed Pasha Mesjedi is based on two reasons: first, because of their common proximity to the church of the Pammakaristos, [322] now Fetiyeh Jamissi; secondly, on the ground of the tradition current in the Greek community on that point. The latter reason is in this case particularly strong, seeing the church of the Pammakaristos was the patriarchal cathedral almost immediately after the Turkish conquest, and retained that honour until 1591. [323] The highest Greek ecclesiastical authorities were therefore in a position to be thoroughly acquainted with the dedication of a church in their close vicinity. In 1578 the protonotarius of the patriarch showed Gerlach the site of the Trullus close to Achmed Pasha Mesjedi. [324]
The church is mentioned in history only by Phrantzes, [325] who informs us that when the Patriarch Gennadius transferred the patriarchal seat to the monastery and church of the Pammakaristos, certain nuns previously accommodated in that House were removed to the neighbouring monastery of S. John Baptist in Trullo. Phrantzes explains the designation of the church, 'in Trullo,' as derived from a palace named Trullus which once stood in the vicinity to the north of the Pammakaristos. It was the palace, adds the historian, [326] in which the Council of Constantinople, known as the Concilium Quinisextum (Πενθέκτη), or the second Concilium Trullanum, assembled in 692, in the reign of Justinian II. But the palace Trullus, in which the first Concilium Trullanum met in 680, was one of the group of buildings forming the Great Palace [327] beside the Hippodrome, and there the second Concilium Trullanum also held its meetings. [328] Phrantzes is therefore mistaken in associating the Council of 692 with a palace in the vicinity of the Pammakaristos and Achmed Pasha Mesjedi. But his mistake on that particular point does not preclude the existence of a palace named Trullus in the neighbourhood of the Pammakaristos. In fact, the existence of such a palace in that district is the only possible explanation of the attachment of the style 'in Trullo' to a church on the site of Achmed Pasha Mesjedi. Nor is it strange to find a name pertaining primarily to a building in the Great Palace transferred to a similar building situated elsewhere. The imperial residence at the Hebdomon, for example, was named Magnaura after one of the halls in the Great Palace. [329] There was an Oaton or Trullus in the palace of Blachernae, [330] and in the palace at Nicaea. [331] Consequently, a palace known as the Oaton or the Trullus might also be situated near the Pammakaristos, to command the fine view from that point of the city. Mordtmann, [332] indeed, maintains that the building to which Phrantzes refers was the palace at Bogdan Serai, the subsequent residence of the Moldavian hospodar in Turkish days, and that the church of S. John in Trullo was not Achmed Pasha Mesjedi, but the church of S. John in Petra (Kesmé Kaya) beside that palace. This opinion, however, is at variance with the statements of Phrantzes and Gerlach. Furthermore, the designation 'in Petra' was so distinctive a mark of the church of S. John near Kesmé Kaya, that the church could scarcely have been recognised under another style.
S. John in Trullo, from the south-west
Balaban Mesjedi (page [265]).
Interior View.
To face page 202.
Fig. 68.
Architectural Features
S. John in Trullo belongs to the ordinary 'four column' type of church building, and has a narthex. Its three apses are semicircular both within and without, presenting the only instance in Constantinople of apses semicircular on the exterior. The central apse projects m. 3 beyond the body of the building, and was lighted by a large but low window, divided into three lights by two pilasters crowned with carved capitals (for details see Fig. [68]); the diaconicon has been built up to form the mihrab of the mosque; the prothesis, to the north, has a barrel vault.
Fig. 69.
The drum dome is octagonal, with eight ribs and as many windows. It seems large for the size of the church, and is lower than usual inside. The windows do not cut into the exterior cornice of the dome. Originally the dome arches rested on four piers or columns, but these have been removed in the course of Turkish repairs, and the dome arches are now supported by beams running across the church, under the impost of the arches.
The arms of the cross to the north and south have barrel vaults, and the walls are pierced by triple windows. Two capitals built into the exterior face of the northern wall, and marked with a cross, were doubtless the capitals of the shafts which divided the northern window into three lights. The western arm of the cross is covered by the roof of the narthex, and lighted by a small round-headed window above it. The small narthex is in three bays, covered with cross-groined vaults.
It is not probable that the church was converted into a mosque before 1591, when the patriarchal seat was removed from the Pammakaristos to S. Demetrius beside the Xyloporta. Nor could the conversion have been later than 1598, the year in which Achmed Pasha—who converted the building into a mosque—died. [333]
Figs. 70 and 71.
[322] Phrantzes, p. 307.
[323] Patr. Constantius, p. 80.
[324] Tagebuch, p. 456. On the way eastwards from the residence of the Moldavian agent (Bogdan Serai), says Gerlach, 'Auf diesem Spazier-weg hat mir Theodosius auch den Trullum auf der Seiten des Patriarchats gegen dem Sultan Selim gewiesen. Welches vor diesen ein sehr weiter Platz gewesen, nun aber nichts mehr da als ein rundes getäffeltes Haus, wie ein kleines Kirchlein ist.' Cf. his statement reported by Crusius in Turcograecia, p. 189: 'Patriarchatui contiguum est monasteriolum Joannis Baptistae a Graecis sanctimonalibus inhabitatum.'
[325] Phrantzes, p. 307; cf. Turcograecia, p. 189.
[326] It was also styled Ὠάτον, 'the Oval,' after the form of its roof or of the body of the building itself (Synax., Sept. 14). Vita Stephani. For the Ὠάτον, see Labarte, Le Palais impérial de Cons'ple, pp. 62, 121, 122, 186.
[327] Vita Stephani Junioris, Migne, P.G. tom. 100, col. 1144 ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ παλατίῳ, ἔνθα ἐπιλέγεται ὁ Τροῦλλος ὅπερ ἡμεῖς Ὠάτον καλοῦμεν.
[328] Balsamon, vol. i. col. 501 ἐν τῷ Τρούλλῳ τοῦ βασιλικοῦ παλατίου.
[329] Theoph. p. 541.
[330] Pachym. i. p. 405.
[331] Acta et diplomata Graeca, iii. p. 65; cf. Paspates, Great Palace, p. 248, Metcalfe's translation.
[332] Proceedings of Greek Syllogos of C.P., Archaeological Supplement to vol. xvii. p. 8. His principal reason seems to be the fact that a company of nuns occupied some of the cells in the old monastery of S. John in Petra when Gerlach visited the city. But, according to Gerlach, another sisterhood was at the same time accommodated in the small convent of S. John the Baptist near the patriarchate.—Turcograecia, p. 189.
[333] Cf. Paspates, p. 304.