Bodrum Camii/Church of the Myrelaion/Myrrhelaion

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This was burnt down just as van Millingen was publishing his magisterial survey of Constantinople’s Byzantine churches and he included a couple of sad commemorative pictures of the ruin. It was in a sad state and serving as a rubbish dump when Mamboury was writing in 1951. Freely reported that it was a ‘mere shell’ in the late 1970s. It was a surprise, then, to be presented with this neat little gem when I headed downhill from Laleli Camii on a winter day at the end of 1990 (41.008597,28.955632). It is perhaps a little too neat to be true to its original appearance but it stands there looking like the archetypal Byzantine church and I rather like it. It does look a bit like a sculpture made out of stacks of coins, though.

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Perhaps the real interest in this area comes with the bodrum (basement) rather than the cami. The church itself was built on a massive basement with one of the tallest crypts that has ever existed.

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To the south-west of the church is an improbably large, circular open space paved with marble.

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If you enter the Mirelion Çarşısı beneath this terrace, you will find a thriving Balkan fur trade conducted in a forest of Byzantine columns.

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It appears to have had its genesis in someone’s desire to build a Pantheon-like rotunda here in the 5^th century. The dome was never finished and in the early 10^th century, the emperor decided to put the columns in and use the resulting structure as a foundation for a palace. The church attached to the palace was what we now see as Bodrum Camii. The rotunda was later used as a cistern, then sat about in a derelict state for a few centuries until someone thought of selling furs (and luggage) there.

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