Το Isa Kapisi Mescidi στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, μονή του πατριάρχου Αθανασίου
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.36, 1995, pages 39-48
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Pages:
39-48
Parallel Title:
The Isa Kapisi Mescidi in Constantinople, a Monastery of the Patriarch Athanasios
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Articles
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Abstract:
The Isa (or Ese) Kapisi, or Manastir, or Ibrahim Pasamescidi was already known in the last century as ananonymous Byzantine monument of Constantinople.Since then it has been published on a few occasions as aPalaeologan monument.The church is located quite close to the column ofArkadios in the Byzantine district of Xerolophos on theside closer to the walls of Constantine. Perusal of thesources and topographical survey of the Xerolophos areahave not revealed any important Palaeologan buildings,with the exception of mention of the founding of amonastery there by the Patriarch Athanasios I. Theauthors of the Life of Athanasios I (the monk Theoktistosthe Stoudite and Joseph Kalothetos) provide muchinformation on the building activity undertaken by thePatriarch. The historian Nikephoros Gregoras informs usas to the monastery's location at Xerolophos. Anextremely interesting source on the same subject is theVenetian Narration on the translation of the relics of StAthanasios immediately after the fall of the city to theOttomans. That the Venetians considered these relics of thePatriarch of Constantinople to be those of the homonymousPatriarch of Alexandria has been adequately established byD. Stiernon. The topographical information in theNarrative regarding the finding of the relics in a place "chein greco la si chiama Acsirolafo, dove e una colonnaaltissima hystoriada [column of Arkadios], corno equella de Roma da un altra banda e un loco che si chiamaCristo in croce, daltra banda e Sancto Athanasio, et tutaquesta contrada se dimanda Acsirolafo", in conjuctionwith the evidence provided by the Russian IgnatiosSmolianin, identify the Manastir mescidi with themonastery of the Patriarch Athanasios. Such anidentification, one again based on the sources, meansthat we should also accept that it was erected between1282 and 1289, namely in about the first decade of thereign of Andronikos II Palaeologos. This take on particularimportance for Constantinople since the church can beproved to be the earliest extant monument of the Palaeologan period.
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