[1]
A great lumpy, looming thing, this bonding of two churches by an adhesive central chapel used to have a rugged charm in the 1990s. One could feel adventurous and daring, weaving through fences and ducking into tunnels, passages and cisterns. The bad-tempered Robert Liddell had a different experience in the 1950s, writing that Zeyrek Camii is now as nasty a place as you can find in a day’s walk in Constantinople. He complained that the whole place swarms with singularly nasty little boys, who seem to breed there, for the number increases at each subsequent visit. (Liddell p79) The descendants of these boys were there in 1990 but proved to be rather helpful in pointing out tunnels that led to somewhere interesting.
[2]
Now it’s having a makeover by Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyesi. The supervising archaeologist is Sait Basaran, famous for his (and his daughter’s) work in Fatih Camii [3] in Enez. The north church has reopened as a mosque. The decoration inside is a nice restrained monochrome. The outside has been done in that familiar way of making some alternating courses of brick and stone, then sandblasting it back to look a bit as though the poor building has been skinned. The south church has been stripped back to the arches and it is interesting to see its skeleton. The funeral chapel in the middle seems to be inaccessible.(41.019671,28.957418)
[4]
There is a good deal of academic disagreement over the ages of the various parts of the church, including the order of building. Some of the stained glass has ended up in the Archaeological Museum. It seems to indicate that this art originated in Constantinople, rather than further west.
[5]Stained glass section in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum
There used to be an extensive monastery complex here. The massive cistern underneath is sometimes accessible and there are many remains of minor buildings in the area. One of these is the Şeyh Süleyman Mescidi [6].
There is a lot still to be found in this area. In a place where everyone has a Byzantine basement, conservation regulations will prevent major building works from bringing them to light. For the present, Zeyrek will remain as a little bit of the old Constantinople with pieces of Byzantium awaiting discovery.
[7]Sarcophagus, probably of Empress Irene. mid-14th C.
[8]Cistern under Zeyrek Camii
[9]The official Fatih Belediyesi version of the projected completion of the restoration
[10]Ivory of Christ Pantocrator, looted from Constantinople in 1204. Now in Victoria and Albert Museum
[11]Odd bits of Pantocrator Monastery in the back streets of Zeyrek
[12]Wall of a once substantial Byzantine building in Fazilet Sokak.
[13]Plot of land with substantial above-ground remains of buildings from the Monastery of the Pantocrator and many more underground.
[14]Byzantine building still serving as foundations for several layers of more recent construction.
[15]Piri Mehmet Paşa Camii, built 1517 on the great cistern of the Pantocrator Monastery. Restored in 2013 with a lot of Byzantine components.
[16]Descent into the cistern from Piri Mehmet Paşa Camii.
[17]Zeyrek Camii in August 2015. The cafe on the terrace has now gone out of business.
[18]Kuran study class in the north church
[19]Zeyrek Camii and cistern, August 2015
[20]The south church in June 2016
[21]Scene at the Pantocrator in March 2017. West wall along all three churches appears to be complete.
[22]March 2017. Work now proceeds on the buildings to the north of the main church complex
[23]Marble paving a few metres north of the north church
[24]August 2017. The fences are down and the environs of the Pantocrator are open again
[25]Vaulting in the narthex of the central chapel
[26]