A belfry was built in the centre of the west front about the year 865:[203] and the eastern walk of the atrium was probably transformed into an exonarthex at the same time. The first regular restoration was also undertaken in the second half of the ninth century, under Basil the Macedonian: “For the wide and lofty western arch of the great church called S. Sophia was showing rents and threatening to fall. With the help of the workmen he girded it round and rebuilt it, so that it was safe and strong. And on it he figured the Virgin with her Child on her arms, and Peter and Paul, the chief of the apostles, on either side.”[204]
Fig. 24.—Plans of Additions to West End. A and C North and South Porches; B Belfry.
The north and south porches and great lateral stairways, which injuriously altered the exterior, must also have been built by Michael or Basil, as we find them mentioned in the Book of Ceremonies.
In October 975 an earthquake caused the “hemisphere with the western arch (apsis) to fall.”[205] They were restored again by the same emperor in six years: he spent, Scylitzes says, “on the machines for mounting for the workmen to stand on, and for raising the scaffolding, to build what was fallen; ten centenaria of gold.”[206] According to Glycas, Romanus Argyrus (1028) beautified the capitals; Scylitzes also says this emperor “made bright with silver and gold both the capitals of the great church and of our Lady of Blachernae.”[207]
The injuries wrought by the Crusaders to S. Sophia are referred to in Chapter V. Baldwin was crowned here in 1204, and for fifty-seven years Catholic priests read masses at its altar. On the recapture the Byzantine emperors made an effort to restore, but the church never recovered its former splendour. The patriarch Arsenius during the reign of Michael Palaeologus “restored the bema and ambo and solea at the king’s expense, besides enriching the church with vestments and sacred vessels.”[208] In the first half of the fourteenth century, Andronicus Palaeologus, the elder, strengthened the north and east sides. Nicephorus Gregoras says the emperor “heard from several experienced builders that in a short time the parts towards the north and east would give way, and fall unless strengthened. And he built pyramidal structures from the foundations and prevented the threatened destruction,” but bricks and mosaic continued to fall.[209] The pyramidal structures to the east must be the four great sloping buttresses which stand over the low attached buildings on that side; they are shown on Fossati’s plan. Gregoras also inveighs against the Empress Anna as having, in the reign of Cantacuzenus, robbed the church of furniture and ornaments, and says that tyranny and oppression were the chief causes of the destruction of the church. Cantacuzenus, in his own history,[210] speaks of the damage caused by an earthquake in 1346, when about a third of the roof fell, destroying “the great stoa by the side of the bema” (perhaps the iconostasis). This is also referred to by Gregoras, “the easternmost of the four arches which rival heaven fell, dragging with it the part of the house which rested on it. The hidden beauty of the bema was destroyed as well as its ornaments of sacred icons.”[211] The stoa and bema were restored by the Empress Anna, the wife of Andronicus Palaeologus, Phaceolatus being prefect of the works, but the upper parts with the roof had to wait until the accession of Cantacuzenus in 1347. He restored the decoration both in marble and mosaic, a work which John Palaeologus finished. Both emperors were helped “by one Astras, in many things a clever man, but especially in building, and by John, surnamed Peralta, one of the Latin subjects of the emperor.”[212]
The church was necessarily much neglected in the last days of the Empire. Clavijo, who gave a careful account of the church in 1403 (see Chapter [IX].), says “the outer gates by which the church was approached were broken and fallen.” He notes that “the Greeks do not call Constantinople as we name it, but speak of it as Escomboli.” This clearly proves that the derivation of the Turkish name Istambul from εἰς τὴν πόλιν, “to the city,” is correct.[213]
The Florentine Bondelmontius, who was there in 1422, says that “only the dome of the church remained, as everything is fallen down and in ruins.” This exaggeration is probably explained by a story given by the Chevalier Bertrandon de la Brocquière, who visited the city eleven years later, in the course of his remarkable ride from Damascus to Dijon along the route of the present Oriental express. He attended service in the church, and writes:—“There the patriarch resides, with others of the rank of canons. It is situated near the eastern point, is of a circular shape, and formed of three different parts, one subterranean, another above the ground, and a third over that. Formerly it was surrounded by cloisters, and was, it was said, three miles in circumference.[214] It is now of smaller extent, and only three cloisters remain, all paved and inlaid with squares of white marble, and ornamented with large columns of various colours. The gates are remarkable for their breadth and height, and are of bronze.”[215] The visit of the Chevalier Bertrandon brings us within twenty years of the fall of the great city.
The incidents of the later years of the empire, the vain efforts to get help from Europe, and the schemes for uniting the Greek and Latin churches, are described by Chedomil Mijatovich.[216] In the year before the Fall the negotiations with the West had proceeded so far, that, on the 12th of December 1452, a Te Deum after the Latin rite was sung by Cardinal Isidore in S. Sophia, but this did not meet with favour from the populace. Ducas speaks of the church after that time as being nothing better than a Jewish synagogue or heathen temple. Five months later, on the 28th of May 1453, the last Christian service was held within its walls. At the vesper service on that solemn evening, the emperor, after praying with great fervour, left his imperial chair, and, approaching the iconostasis, prostrated himself before the figures of Christ and the Madonna on either side of the great central door. He then asked for pardon from any whom he might have offended, and the ritual proceeded.
On the morrow at the first capture of the city the Janissaries rushed to the great church, which they conceived was filled with gold, silver, and precious stones. They found the doors fastened, but broke them open, and at once began to pillage. The sultan as soon as possible rode to S. Sophia. Dismounting on the threshold, with the mystic symbolism of an Oriental, he stooped down, and, collecting some earth, let it fall on his turbaned head, as an act of humiliation. Then he entered the edifice, but stopped in the doorway some moments, and gazed in silence before him.