Salzenberg’s Plate xx. contains a collection of architectural details, which seem to belong to different periods; Figs. 1, 2, 3 represent one of the white marble capitals which adorn the two porphyry columns of the south-east porch. The arch above them is Turkish, and hence it may be questioned if this was their original position: they seem more intended for an ornamental structure than to support a load, and they may perhaps have belonged to a ciborium above the holy table. The two marble capitals (Figs. 4 and 5), only three inches thick, were found in the chamber in the north-east buttress mass, above the gynaeceum roof, together with broken pieces from a window. They may originally have belonged to the upper part of the building, such as the window wall under the north arch of the dome.[267] The workmanship is very different from that in the rest of the church, and is more closely allied with ancient treatment. Perhaps they are fragments from the earlier church which found a fresh application in Justinian’s building. The parapet pillars between the twin columns of the western gynaeceum, with tall pedestals, are each formed in one piece of verde antique. Their capitals resemble those of the windows,[268] with the exception that the former are rounded underneath instead of being square.
The wood ties which span different arches are adorned on the sides and beneath with carvings.[269]
Windows and Doors.—The lighting of the church is most brilliant; wherever space or construction permitted, windows of considerable size were opened, so that light floods the whole church. At the foot of the dome the light streams in through forty windows, and each of the seven apses has five openings. The eastern sun sends its first rays through the six windows in the apse, and the setting sun shines through the great west lunette. There are twenty-four windows in the two great tympana, besides large windows in the aisles.
The windows in the conchs of the exedras are now closed up, the grouped windows in the great tympana on the north and south are diminished to insignificant openings, and the large arched openings at the sides or the end divisions of the aisles seem even in Byzantine times to have been reduced in size; at least the remains of piers, shown in Salzenberg’s Plate xiii., indicate that there was originally an opening with pilasters, similar to those at the eastern end of the side aisles.[270]
It is said that Justinian gave instructions that combustible materials should be avoided. If so, these instructions were followed even to the windows and doors, for the lattice-work of the former is of marble, and the panels of the latter are of bronze, or rather they are covered with bronze.
Salzenberg[271] gives the inside elevation and section of a window on the south side of the gynaeceum, with details on a larger scale. The opening in the wall is brick-arched, and the framework consists of upright posts, with a thin horizontal architrave dividing the window into two parts. Between these posts were fitted the breast-wall and lattice-work. The posts are narrow towards the outside, and the ends of the architrave rest on thin pieces against the jambs.
The ‘breast-wall’ at the bottom of the opening and the ‘lattice-work’ are formed of marble, three inches thick. The openings pierced in the slabs are about seven or eight inches high, filled with panes of glass. Between the panes the marble has a width of three and a half inches, slightly splayed on the inside. A second row of slabs fills the lower part of the windows pierced with openings, surrounded by wider margins.[272]
The great semicircular west window is divided vertically by two columns with plain capitals and bases; the horizontal division from column to column is similar to the crowning member of the breast-wall of the other windows. The lower part is filled with marble slabs, which conceal the roof of the western gynaeceum. Each panel is ornamented with a cross upon a circle, and within the latter is a monogram.
The small windows are simply filled with marble lattice for the glass. Inside the apse windows of the east end are other windows having coloured glazing; but these are evidently Turkish.
Marble door jambs were placed in the openings left in the walls, just as the posts were inserted in the windows; the middle, or Royal Door, from the narthex to the nave, is of bronze. All the frames were moulded, and above are fixed door-hooks, like bent forefingers; these held rings and leather fastenings, from which were suspended the customary door-hangings.