Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki
Date:
Eighth century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Greece
Description:
From the seventh century to the early ninth, Byzantine church architecture went through a transitional phase. Some basilicas continued to be built, but there were more domed churches, following the model of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople but on a much more modest scale. The most important building from this period is Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, which was built with bands of brick and stone on the ruins of an earlier basilica. It likely dates to the mid-eighth century. It is a cross-domed church, with an 10-meter dome braced by narrow barrel vaults on four sides to create a cruciform naos with second-story galleries on three sides (the west gallery was added in the tenth century). The whole church, measuring 30 meters on a side, could fit under the dome of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
Erected during the period of iconoclasm, the apse of the church originally featured nonfigural decoration: a mosaic cross, as at Hagia Eirene in Constantinople. At the end of the eighth century an image of the enthroned Theotokos and Christ child replaced it. The incription at the base of the apse is from Psalm 65, about God's holy house. The dome (ninth century?) depicts the Ascension of Christ, held aloft by angels. In a stylized landscape are Mary, more angels, and all twelve apostles. Four lines of Greek above Mary's head quote Acts 1:11, which describes the scene: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will return in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Erected during the period of iconoclasm, the apse of the church originally featured nonfigural decoration: a mosaic cross, as at Hagia Eirene in Constantinople. At the end of the eighth century an image of the enthroned Theotokos and Christ child replaced it. The incription at the base of the apse is from Psalm 65, about God's holy house. The dome (ninth century?) depicts the Ascension of Christ, held aloft by angels. In a stylized landscape are Mary, more angels, and all twelve apostles. Four lines of Greek above Mary's head quote Acts 1:11, which describes the scene: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will return in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
4
Image Credits:
Wikimedia Commons; Flickr
Tags:
Byzantine,
Christian,
Mediterranean,
Access to the sacred,
Ideology,
Bible,
Greek,
Iconoclasm,
Saints
