CHAPTER III
THE CHURCH OF SS. SERGIUS AND BACCHUS, KUTCHUK AYA SOFIA
On the level tract beside the Sea of Marmora, to the south of the Hippodrome, and a few paces to the north-west of Tchatlady Kapou, stands the ancient church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. It is commonly known as the mosque Kutchuk Aya Sofia, Little S. Sophia, to denote at once its likeness and its unlikeness to the great church of that name. It can be reached by either of the two streets descending from the Hippodrome to the sea, or by taking train to Koum Kapou, and then walking eastwards for a short distance along the railroad.
There can be no doubt in regard to its identity. For the inscription on the entablature of the lower colonnade in the church proclaims the building to be a sanctuary erected by the Emperor Justinian and his Empress Theodora to the honour of the martyr Sergius. The building stands, moreover, as SS. Sergius and Bacchus stood, close to the site of the palace and the harbour of Hormisdas.[81] When Gyllius visited the city the Greek community still spoke of the building as the church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus—'Templum Sergii et Bacchi adhuc superest, cujus nomen duntaxat Graeci etiam nunc retinent.'[82]
SS. Sergius and Bacchus.
Interior, looking north-west
To face page 63.
The foundations of the church were laid in 527, the year of Justinian's accession,[83] and its erection must have been completed before 536, since it is mentioned in the proceedings of the Synod held at Constantinople in that year.[84] According to the Anonymus, indeed, the church and the neighbouring church of SS. Peter and Paul were founded after the massacre in the Hippodrome which suppressed the Nika Riot. But the Anonymus is not a reliable historian.[85]