The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine Building

by W. R. Lethaby; Harold Swainson

The Holy Well and Metatorion.—The Holy Well, so frequently mentioned in the Ceremonies, seems to have been not merely an object but a division of the church. Labarte makes it a chamber external to the church on the south side, but the Anonymous shows that it was to the east, by speaking of “that part of the temple in which was the Holy Well, the bema, and the ambo.” The author of an account of “the miracle in the Holy Well of the Great Church” speaks of a picture of Christ as being by the eastern gate, “where is the holy mouth of the well of Samaria.”[131]

The Russian pilgrims generally speak of the Samaritan well, from which flowed water from the Jordan, as “in the sanctuary:” the Anonymous Russian says “in the chapel to the right.” At this time it was probably in one of the eastern chapels, which, may have been identical with the prothesis or diakonikon. Some passages of the Ceremonies seem to imply that in the tenth century the Holy Well was without the building; thus we hear of the “embolos [portico] of the Holy Well:” and again, “from the Holy Well, they enter by the door leading to the church;”[132] possibly it was moved later, but probably one of the eastern attached chapels will fulfil the conditions. In our [Fig. 5] we have followed Du Cange’s ground-plan in the distribution of these eastern chapels. It is possible that the round north-east building was used as a great sacristy as Salzenberg suggests; Grelot calls it so on his plan, and T. Smith says this was a tradition. The Anonymous definitely distinguishes the Skeuophylakium, the Holy Well, and the Chapel of S. Peter.

The Metatorion, frequently spoken of together with the Holy Well, Labarte and Paspates place on the south side, external to the church. We think it was probably the name of portions of the side-aisles screened off by curtains. This would agree with Unger,[133] who thinks that the word means a “quarter of the church” (metatio), and that Du Cange was mistaken in deriving it from mutatorium. In the Ceremonies,—“The princes go out of the right side of the bema and enter the metatorion.” Again, the patriarch stands within the iconostasis “on the right-hand side of the bema, towards the metatorion.” From the metatorion a small door led to the Holy Well. Again, “they leave the bema by the right-hand side through the small holy door (in iconostasis) and proceed to the porphyry columns (of exedra), and by the staircase of the metatorion they enter the catechumena.”[134] Again, “the emperor takes off his crown in the metatorion within the Beautiful Gate,” and “within the veil, hanging in the metatorion at the back of the narthex door.” Metatoria in the catechumena of S. Sophia and of S. Sergius are also referred to.[135]

Solea.—The later writers often mention the solea of S. Sophia. Thus Cantacuzenus speaks of the emperor passing through the solea up to the “Holy Doors.”[136] It was immediately outside the iconostasis, and must have closely agreed with the choir of the singers in a Western church. Paulus does not use the word, but he describes the singers as occupying the space in front of the Holy Doors, and embraced by the exedras. The ambo, with its long passage of approach from the step of the Holy Doors, divided this space in two, so it is clear that the singers stood on either side of the ambo. The portion round about the ambo screened by the circle of columns was reserved for the leaders of the choir, the Protopsaltae.[137] We cannot infer from the Silentiary that there was any other screen to the Solea, and no stalls for the singers are mentioned.

It is possible that in the tenth century, when the Book of the Ceremonies was written, the ambo had been modified at least in regard to the approach from the bema, and that a considerable space was interposed between it and the Holy Doors, in front of which there was at this time a porphyry omphalion stone (see our page [96]). Paspates[138] says this is still quite intact, somewhat oval in shape, seven feet across, and adorned with a mosaic of marbles. It seems probable from the Anonymous that in these later days the solea was inclosed by a screen which he says was of silver.[139]

Paulus describes a part on the south side as being inclosed for the emperor, and in Porphyrogenitus we read that the emperor had his seat “near the Holy Doors on the right-hand side.” It is probable that opposite the emperor’s throne there was another bishop’s chair, for that in the bema might only be occupied by the bishop in his own diocese. Grelot indeed reports that the emperor’s and bishop’s thrones were opposite one another.

Nave.—We now come to the central division of the church, the naos or nave, the square space beneath the dome contained between the four main piers: its centre was called omphalos, mesomphalos, or mesonaos.

The pavement, according to the poet Paul, was covered with white Proconnesian marble and darker Bosporus stone. In the opening lines of the description before given he seems to compare the veined marble to flowing streams, or foam-flecked sea, and the ambo is likened to an island rising from the sea. According to Glycas and Codinus the first pavement was of various hues like the ocean. The Anonymous, in comparing a pavement which he says was laid down afterwards with this supposed earlier one, says that “messengers were sent to Proconnesus, and marble of a green colour was worked there, as is seen now like rivers flowing into the sea.” Codinus says, “four rivers of leek-green marble were like the four streams which flow from Paradise to the sea.” As is seen now certainly seems to bring something definite before our eyes, and so far as the pavement can be seen through the narrow chinks of the matting there is much to confirm this part of the Anonymous. Grelot tells us that the pavement is laid in compartments. It is of whitish gray Proconnesian marble, laid in slabs about 4 × 10 feet, with here and there strips of verde antique about 2 feet wide, which suggest the quartering of the floor by a great cross. Moreover the square of rich Alexandrine work still existing, and figured by Salzenberg, lies on a diagonal, and would thus exactly occupy one of four square spaces left in the angles (see [Fig. 5]). Now in the palace the floor of the bedchamber of Basil had four rivers or streams of Thessalian-green marble which seemed to flow away from the centre, and the quarters were filled with mosaics of large eagles.[140] It may also be noticed that four rivers are depicted as flowing away from the cross on the central bronze door of narthex. Many parallel examples of pavements, still existing, confirm the Anonymous in this respect. The mosaic floors of Italy furnish many instances where the four rivers of Eden are represented in the several angles as human forms pouring from urns, waters which are inscribed with the names Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates, and Pison. The design of the pavement of the Baptistery at Florence has been much disturbed, but it seems to have represented flowing streams, which led from the font in the middle to the doors like four paths. It has been pointed out that the carpet of Chosroes, which is described as having represented a garden with flowing streams, was a traditional pattern of which an example showing four streams quartering the field is in the possession of Mr. Colvin.[141] We understand that a similar carpet is now in New York.

We give here a representation of a square of pavement at the centre of the Western Gynaeceum; it is of Proconnesian slabs with border, and a disc of verde antico.