Church of the Holy Apostles

right|An image from a [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|National Library of France codex (12th century), believed to be a representation of the Church of the Holy Apostles|thumb|386x386px]]

The Church of the Holy Apostles (, Agioi Apostoloi; ), also known as the Imperial Polyandrion (imperial cemetery), was a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox church in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The first structure dated to the 4th century, though future emperors would add to and improve upon it. It was second in size and importance only to the Hagia Sophia among the great churches of the capital.

When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Holy Apostles briefly became the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Three years later, the dilapidated edifice was abandoned, and the patriarchate moved to the Theotokos Pammakaristos Church. In 1461, the remains of the Church of the Holy Apostles were demolished by the Ottomans to make way for the Fatih Mosque.

History

The original Church of the Holy Apostles was dedicated in about 330 by Constantine the Great, the founder of Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire. The church was unfinished when Constantine died in 337, and it was completed by his son and successor Constantius II, who buried his father's remains there. The church was dedicated to the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, and it was the emperor's intention to gather relics of all the Apostles in the church. However, only relics of Saint Andrew, Saint Luke and Saint Timothy (the latter two not members of the formal group known as the Twelve Apostles) were acquired, and in later centuries it came to be assumed that the church was dedicated to these three only.

By the reign of the Emperor Justinian I, the church was no longer considered grand enough, and a new Church of the Holy Apostles was built on the same site. The historian Procopius attributes the rebuilding to Justinian, while the writer known as Pseudo-Codinus attributes it to the Empress Theodora. The new church was designed and built by the architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, the same architects behind the rebuild of Hagia Sophia, and was consecrated on 28 June 550. The relics of Constantine and the three saints were re-installed in the new church, and a mausoleum for Justinian and his family was built at the end of its northern arm.

For more than 700 years, the Church of the Holy Apostles was the second most important church in Constantinople, after that of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia). But whereas the church of the Holy Wisdom was in the city's oldest part, that of the Holy Apostles stood in the newer part of the expanded imperial capital, on the great thoroughfare called Mese Odós (), and became the city's busiest church. Most emperors and many patriarchs and bishops were buried here, and their relics were venerated by the faithful for centuries.

The church's most treasured possessions were the skulls of Saints Andrew, Luke and Timothy, but the church also held what was believed to be part of the "Column of Flagellation", to which Jesus had been bound and flogged. Its treasury also held relics of Saint John Chrysostom and other Church Fathers, saints and martyrs. Over the years the church acquired huge amounts of gold, silver and gems donated by the faithful.

Emperor Basil I renovated and probably enlarged the church, and in 874 the remains of the historian and patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople, who had died earlier in the century, were reinterred in the rebuilt church, where they became the site of annual imperial devotion. In the 10th century Constantine of Rhodes composed a Description of the Building of the Apostles in verse, which he dedicated to Constantine VII.

The basilica was looted during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The historian Nicetas Choniates records that the Crusaders plundered the imperial tombs for their gold and gems. Not even Justinian's tomb was spared. The tomb of Emperor Heraclius was opened and his golden crown was stolen with the late emperor's hair still attached to it. Some of these treasures were taken to Venice, where they can be seen in St Mark's Basilica, while the body of St. Gregory was brought to Rome.

When Michael VIII Palaeologus recaptured the city from the Crusaders, he erected a statue of the Archangel Michael at the church to commemorate the event and his part in it. The church was partially restored again by Andronicus II Palaeologus in the early 14th century, but thereafter fell into disrepair as the empire declined and Constantinople's population fell. The Florentine Cristoforo Buondelmonti saw the decaying church in 1420.

In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottomans. The cathedral church of Hagia Sophia was seized and turned into a mosque, and Sultan Mehmed II reassigned to the Orthodox Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius the Church of the Holy Apostles, so in 1456 Gennadius decided to move the Patriarchate to the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos in the Çarşamba neighbourhood.

This building he carried to a vast height, and brilliantly decorated by encasing it from the

foundation to the roof with marble slabs of various colors. He also formed the inner roof of finely

fretted work, and overlaid it throughout with gold. The external covering, which protected the

building from the rain, was of brass instead of tiles; and this too was splendidly and profusely

adorned with gold, and reflected the sun’s rays with a brilliancy which dazzled the distant beholder. The dome was entirely encompassed by a finely carved tracery, wrought in brass and gold.

Such was the magnificence with which the emperor was pleased to beautify this church. The

building was surrounded by an open area of great extent, the four sides of which were terminated

by porticos which enclosed the area and the church itself. Adjoining these porticos were ranges of

stately chambers, with baths and promenades, and besides many apartments adapted to the use of

those who had charge of the place.

</blockquote>

The cruciform plan was a landmark development in Christian architecture, because it replaced a basilica plan with a centralized shrine plan. Dozens of cruciform church buildings of the late fourth and early fifth centuries were rough imitations of the Constantine-era Church of the Holy Apostles, such as St. Ambrose's Church of the Apostles in Milan, the martyrium of St. Babylas in Antioch, and the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites in Aleppo, Syria. Although there are brief mentions of the building in a variety of sources, the accounts of Procopius, Constantine of Rhodes, and Nicholas Mesarites are the only substantial textual descriptions of the building's appearance to have survived.

Churches such as the Basilica of St. John, St Mark's Basilica, the Cathédrale Saint-Front, and the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua are believed to have been modelled on Justinian's Holy Apostles but differ from each other significantly.

Burials

thumb|[[Porphyry (geology)|Porphyry sarcophagi of Byzantine emperors on display outside the Istanbul Archaeology Museums]]

The church's mausoleums were the resting place for most Eastern Roman emperors and members of their families for seven centuries, beginning with Constantine I (d. 337) and ending with Constantine VIII (d. 1028). With no more space available, emperors began to be buried in other churches and monasteries around the city. The tombs in the church of Holy Apostles are known only from lists in literary sources, one of which is contained in De Ceremoniis.

Although the sarcophagi of the emperors were raided by Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, some of the oldest porphyry sarcophagi have survived: two in the atrium of the Hagia Eirene, four outside the Archaeological Museum, and a fragment of a seventh in the museum's "Istanbul through the Ages" pavilion; this fragment is believed to be from the sarcophagus of Constantine I.

Among those buried in the church were:

Constantine I (337)
Constantius II (361)
Julian (363)
Jovian (364) and his wife Charito
Valentinian I (375) and his wife Marina Severa
Theodosius I (395)
Arcadius (408) and Aelia Eudoxia (404)
Theodosius II (450)
Marcian (457) and Pulcheria (453)
Anastasius I (518) and Ariadne (515)
Justinian I (565) and Theodora (548)
Ino Anastasia (593)
Heraclius (641) and Eudokia (612)
Fausta (668)
Constantine IV (685) and Anastasia (711)
Anastasios II (719)
Eudokia
Irene of Athens (803)
Leo VI the Wise (912) and his three wives (Theophano Martiniake (893), Zoe Zaoutzaina (899), Eudokia Baïana (901))
Eudokia Ingerina (882)
Nikephoros II (969)
Constantine VIII (1028)
Zoe Porphyrogenita (1050)
Theodora Porphyrogenita (1056)

The bodies of Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople and Patriarch Cyriacus II of Constantinople were also buried there.

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Byzantium 1200 | Holy Apostles hypothetical computer reconstruction
Nicholas Mesarites, Ekphrasis on the Church of the Holy Apostles with a hypothetical plan of the church
Dumbarton Oaks exhibition with a hypothetical plan of the church
Presentation by Nikolaos Karydis with a hypothetical reconstruction at 7:33