Outside Istanbul

This site is all about Istanbul but the influences on and of Constantinople are widespread. This section looks at what happened to the Ecumenical Patriarchate after the 1204 sack of Constantinople when Christians desecrated the world’s greatest Christian city. The treasures went west, especially to Venice. The faith went to Nicaea, Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus. The influence of Byzantine architecture spread almost everywhere. The oldest building here is the Pantheon in Rome, whose tremendous dome inspired one of the hallmarks of Byzantine church architecture. The newest is the Church of the Wisdom of God, a strange Victorian attempt to recreate the greatness of Byzantium in a rural parish in Surrey.

1. Trakya, Thrace, European Turkey

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2. Bithynia, south shore of the Sea of Marmara

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3. Iznik/Nicaea

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4. Aya Sofya Trabzon/Trebizond

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5. Butrint, The Despotate of Epirus

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6. Basilica San Marco, Venezia/Venedik

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7. The Pantheon, Rome

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8. The Church of the Wisdom of God, Lower Kingswood, Surrey

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