In striking agreement with this evidence since the Turkish Conquest, are the accounts given regarding the Church of St. Saviour by writers previous to that event. According to them, the church was in the neighbourhood of the Church of St. George Mangana, and to the east of that sanctuary; it stood close to the sea, immediately behind the city walls; its Holy Spring was enclosed within the walls, and yet could be reached from without; in front of the walls through which the sacred stream flowed, was a beach of sand endowed with healing properties.[[922]] Nothing can be more conclusive.
This identification is of the greatest importance for the topographical reconstruction of the quarters of Byzantine Constantinople along the eastern shore of the promontory, for, with that church as a fixed point, it becomes comparatively easy to determine the positions of other noted buildings in the neighbourhood.
By means of that landmark, for example, the situation of the Church of St. George Mangana can, we have seen, be fixed.[[923]] It enables us also to settle, without prolonged discussion, the question raised by the extensive ruins discovered behind Indjili Kiosk, when the ground was cleared, in 1871, for the construction of the Roumelian railroad. The walls of an edifice 322 feet long by 53 feet wide, were then brought to view, and among the débris marble pillars and capitals were found in such numbers, as to prove that the building to which they belonged had been one of considerable importance.[[924]] Because some of the capitals seemed ornamented with the heads of bulls and lions, Dr. Paspates came to the conclusion that the ruins were the remains of the celebrated Palace of the Bucoleon.[[925]] On the other hand, Dr. Mordtmann thinks that here was the site of the Imperial residence, known as the Palace of Mangana,[[926]] an erection of Basil I.[[927]]
That the latter opinion is the correct one may be proved by means of the fact that the Church of St. Saviour stood at Indjili Kiosk. In the first place, the Palace of Mangana was near the Church of St. George Mangana—so near that the destruction of that palace by Isaac Angelus, to obtain material for edifices of his own construction, was viewed as an act of sacrilege committed against the property of the great saint.[[928]] But the Church of St. George Mangana, we have found, lay a short distance to the west of the Church of St. Saviour,[[929]] near the site of Indjili Kiosk. Consequently the remains of a palace near that kiosk must be those of the Palace of Mangana. This conclusion agrees, furthermore, with the fact that the Mangana, which gave name to the palace, was in this vicinity.[[930]] It is also consistent with the circumstance that the Palace of Mangana was noted for its coolness,[[931]] as would be characteristic of a residence in the position of Indjili Kiosk, which is exposed to the north wind that sweeps down the Bosporus from the Black Sea.
Thus, also, the site of the Church of St. Lazarus can be approximately determined. From the order in which the churches visited by the Deacon Zosimus[[932]] between St. Sophia and St. George Mangana are mentioned, it is clear that the Church of St. Lazarus lay to the south of the Church of St. Saviour, and consequently somewhere between Indjili Kiosk and the Seraglio Lighthouse. The identification is important; for near the Church of St. Lazarus was found the tier of seats, known as the Topi, which marked the southern extremity of the walls of old Byzantium on the side of the Sea of Marmora.[[933]]
Thus, also, the eastern limit of the grounds of the palace erected by Constantine the Great is determined. “The Triclinia erected by Constantine the Great,” says Codinus,[[934]] “reached to that point,” i.e. the Topi. Furthermore, the Tzycanisterion, or polo-ground, attached to the Great Palace, extended, we are told, as far as the neighbourhood of the Church of St. Lazarus and the Topi.[[935]] Dr. Paspates is therefore mistaken in making the palace grounds reach to within a short distance of the Seraglio Point.
Near the Topi likewise stood the Thermæ Arcadianæ,[[936]] constructed by the Emperor Arcadius, and one of the finest ornaments of the capital. There, also, was a church dedicated to the Archangel Michael, ἐν Ἀρκαδιαναῖς.[[937]]
In this neighbourhood, moreover, must have stood the Atrium of Justinian the Great,[[938]] a favourite public resort towards sunset, when the eastern side of the city was in shade, to admire the magnificent display of colour then reflected on the Sea of Marmora and the Asiatic coast and mountains. It was built of white marble and adorned with statuary, among which the statue of the Empress Theodora, upon a pillar of porphyry, was specially remarkable.[[939]]
Still further south of the Church of St. Saviour rose one of the most venerated shrines in Constantinople, the Church of the Theotokos Hodegetria (τῶν Ὁδηγῶν) founded by the Empress Pulcheria, and reconstructed by Michael III.[[940]] It boasted of a Holy Well famed for marvellous cures,[[941]] and of an Icon of the Virgin, attributed to St. Luke, which was regarded as the palladium of the city and the leader (Ὁδηγητρία) of the hosts of the Empire to victory. Generals on leaving the city to engage in war paid their devotions at this shrine, and the sacred picture had the first place of honour in a triumphal procession, taking precedence of the emperor himself.[[942]] In view of the siege of the city by Branas, in the reign of Isaac Angelus, the Icon was carried round the fortifications;[[943]] while in 1453 it was placed in the Church of the Chora, not far from the Gate of Charisius, to support the defence. There, upon the capture of the city, it was found by the Turks, and cut to pieces.[[944]]
According to the Russian pilgrims, the Church of the Hodegetria was situated to the south of St. George Mangana, and to the east of St. Sophia, on the right of the street conducting from the cathedral to the sea.[[945]] These indications support the opinion of Dr. Mordtmann[[946]] that the position of the church is marked by a neglected Hagiasma in the large vegetable garden at the south-eastern corner of the Seraglio grounds.