Читать книгу Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites онлайн

97 страница из 107

Again, the Gate of Charisius was, like Edirnè Kapoussi, at the head of the street leading to the Church of the Holy Apostles. This is evident from the circumstance that when Justinian the Great, returning to the city from the West, visited on his way to the palace the tomb of the Empress Theodora at the Holy Apostles’, he entered the capital by the Gate of Charisius instead of by the Golden Gate,^[358] because the former entrance led directly to the Imperial Cemetery near that church.

To these arguments may be added the fact that near the Gate of Charisius was a Church of St. George,^[359] the guardian of the entrance, and that a Byzantine church dedicated to that saint stood immediately to the south-east of Edirnè Kapoussi as late as the year 1556, when it was appropriated by Sultan Suleiman for the construction of the Mosque of Mihrimah. At the same time the Greek community received by way of compensation a site for another church to the north-west of the gate, and there the present Church of St. George was built to preserve the traditions of other days.^[360] Lastly, like Edirnè Kapoussi, the Gate of Charisius stood at a point from which one could readily proceed to the Church of the Chora (Kahriyeh Djamissi), the Church of St. John in Petra (Bogdan Serai), and the Palace of Blachernæ.^[361]