Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, Constantinople
Date:
527 to 536
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Turkey
Description:
Sergios and Bakchos (Sergius and Bacchus) were early fourth-century martyrs whose popular pilgrimage site was at Resafa, in Syria. They were also commemorated in one of the oldest churches that survives in Constantinople (it recently became a mosque). It is sometimes called "little Hagia Sophia" because it, too, is a centrally planned, two-story church built by Emperor Justinian between 527 and 536, when it is first attested as a monastery.
Sts. Sergius and Bacchus has a double-shell design, with piers alternating with paired columns to form flat and curved recesses in the octagonal naos. This interplay of spaces is inscribed within a rectangular exterior interrupted by a projecting east apse. The masonry dome, which also alternates flat and scalloped segments, measures fifty Byzantine feet in diameter, half that of Hagia Sophia. The patrons of San Vitale in Ravenna, begun in 526, were likely inspired by the plan and elevation of Sts. Sergios and Bakchos.
Lacelike, drilled capitals on colorful columns support a carved cornice between the two interior stories. On the cornice, a long dedicatory epigram in Greek encourages God to watch over Justinian and his wife, Theodora, who is praised for supporting the needy and having a mind "bright with piety." The second-story capitals bear imperial monograms. The multiple references to Justinian and Theodora were meant to rival the claims of the aristocrat Anicia Juliana's inscribed in her new church of Hagios Polyeuktos across town.
Sts. Sergius and Bacchus has a double-shell design, with piers alternating with paired columns to form flat and curved recesses in the octagonal naos. This interplay of spaces is inscribed within a rectangular exterior interrupted by a projecting east apse. The masonry dome, which also alternates flat and scalloped segments, measures fifty Byzantine feet in diameter, half that of Hagia Sophia. The patrons of San Vitale in Ravenna, begun in 526, were likely inspired by the plan and elevation of Sts. Sergios and Bakchos.
Lacelike, drilled capitals on colorful columns support a carved cornice between the two interior stories. On the cornice, a long dedicatory epigram in Greek encourages God to watch over Justinian and his wife, Theodora, who is praised for supporting the needy and having a mind "bright with piety." The second-story capitals bear imperial monograms. The multiple references to Justinian and Theodora were meant to rival the claims of the aristocrat Anicia Juliana's inscribed in her new church of Hagios Polyeuktos across town.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
3
Image Credits:
Wikimedia Commons; Flickr, Brad Hostetler
