The Chora (Museum) Monastery is located in the northwest part of Istanbul, in a district called Edirnekapi. The word “Chora”, as widely accepted, means land, country, a suburb, or suburban area, and countryside in Greek language. As the building lied outside the city walls built by emperor Constantine, it was thus named Chora. Chora also means “womb” in ancient Greek. Some historians are discussing that the church might have been dedicated to Virgin mary who gave birth to Jesus from her womb. As a conclusion, two etymological approaches of the word “Chora” are a matter of concern. 1- Geographical (land, county, suburb), 2- religious and mystical (womb).
Historian Johannes VI Kantakouzenos mentioned about the church in his book (1347-1354), and emphasizing more on the second theory, he described the church as “Chora where immeasurable grandeur of jesus took form”. During the period of Palailogos (1259-1453) the word “Chora” has gained a new dimension and interpreted as “the uppermost limit of life that man can dream, coalesced with the attribute of Jesus.
It is also quite interesting that today inside the church there is a mosaic of Mary with an inscription “The Dwelling place of the Uncontainable”. The term “Uncontainable” implies the new meaning attributed to Jesus and the church.
During the Ottoman period the the church was renamed as “Kariye” which also means suburban, country in Arabic.
The History of the Building
Even though we don’t have substantial information as to the exact date of the construction of the church, there are some historical indications that give us some clues, and the date can be traced back to the second half of the 3rd c. AD. Historian Symeon Metaphrastes mentioned in his book, the martyrdom of St. Babilas and his 84 followers in Nikomedia (today’s Izmit) in 298 AD, and that their bodies were secretly taken to Constantinople by Christians and buried in the garden of Chora Monastery. hence the date 298 AD implies that the building was already existed in that year. Moreover considering the meaning of “Chora” as suburban, countryside, we can conclude the date of construction before the construction of the land walls (415 AD. Emperor Thedosius).
Another inscription belonging to the 9th c. AD. points out that, General Theodoros, the uncle of Empress Theodora (wife of Emperor Justinian) built a monastery between 536-557 during his retirement years. When Thedoros came to the area he found a tiny church an a refectory and decided to construct a new monastery on the same location. It is also cited that the building was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt by Emperor Justinian as a church and a guest house.
According to Historian Metaphoras Gregoras, the church was built by Emperor Justinian. But time caused too much destruction to the church and Maria Ducaena (Dukania) (mother in law of Emperor Alexius Comnenus) built today’s church on the same location (1081-1118 AD). This church also suffered from earthquakes and famous Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites restored and endowed the church with much of its fine mosaics and frescos in 1312 AD. The building that survived to our time is from that era.
As the city (Constantinople) was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD, the Chora Monastery was converted to a mosque in 1551 by Atik Ali Pasha, the Grand Vizier (Advisor) of Sultan Bayazit II. No destruction was made to the building but a minaret was added and the mosaics were covered with plaster. Between 1948-1958 the structure was restored by the American Byzantine Institute, the plasters were removed, and original outlook was restored.
Theodoro Metochites, during the reconstruction did not touch and change the main building but built some additional chambers such as Parecclesion (the side chapel) and the outer Narthex. The building is surmounted by 6 domes, two of them is located in the inner Narthex, the other two are situated on the both sides of the apse. The larges dome is covering the main hall (Naos) with a diameter of 7.70 m, and the second largest is in the Parecclesion with a diameter of 4.50 m. The dimension of the present building is 27 by 27.50 meters. The length of Parecclesion is 29 meters. The Inner Narthex is 4 by 16 meters whereas the outer Narthex is 4 by 23.30 meters.
Technique : This art can not be considered as a work of a single artist but a work of a team consisting of a chief master artist, his assistants and students. First of all the main theme is drawn on a piece of cloth. The wall is covered with sticky, fast drying plaster, the mosaic stones are places on the draft picture on the cloth. Same picture are drawn on the wet plaster and the team pick up the stones from the clothe and sticks them on the same locations of the plaster. This job should be done very quickly before the wet plaster dry up.
It is generally accepted that the source for Iconography program of the mosaic depictions depends on the first Gospel of Jacob (Proto Evangelium). The Christian Church accepts Canonical Gospel, and Non-Canonical (Apocryphal) Gospels are totally ignored.
The Mosaic depictions of Jesus and Virgin Mary follow a sequential order. There are also depictions of unique themes not following any logical sequence of Biblical stories. In the case of Chora, this sequential order applies to mosaic depictions. Scientists agreed that mosaics all belong to 14th century. The mosaics in both Narthex and in some parts of Naos (Main Hall) reflect the characteristics of the Byzantine Renaissance as the artists abandoned the earlier classical rules and traditions giving themselves absolute freedom. The best designed and preserved mosaics are located in the Inner Narthex. The mosaics compositions here totally differ from the Classical style where the figures were quite stagnant on a gold background. The figures in Chora mosaics are quite mobile and lively. They were pictured in a way as if they are laughing, and looking at your eyes. The colors and tones are quite rich compared to classical style.
In comparison to the Hagia Sophia mosaics which belong to 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries where figures are quite static and frozen, and bigger cubes were used, whereas in Chora There is a certain degree of mobility and lively hood and the mosaic cubes are smaller. Even In some depictions we see the concept of life has gone far beyond the religious and mystical messages. This new artistic trend verifies that the Byzantine art became more Naturalistic before its collapse. The best example that the Renaissance influence and the trend of lirism can be seen, is the depiction of Mary in the garden. Here the anonymous artist used his palette quite generously using almost every tones of green, picturing trees, meadows, pastures, even small birds on the branches with perfect details.
The materials used for making the mosaic cubes were painted glass and marble. Glass cubes were painted with golden colors, green, red, silver, blue and black. In 1894 an earthquake destroyed some of the mosaics in Chora Monastery.
The Frescos in the Parecclesion (Annexed Chapel)
The parecclesion (also spelled parekklesion) was also the construction of Metochites. This part of the structure is also called “Funerary Chapel” as there were four recessed grave niches (arcosolia) counter each other. These were designed to serve as sepulchral monuments for Metochites, Mikhail Tornikes and his wife. Beneath the Chapel there is a stone chamber which was used as Crypt (Latin crypta; burial chamber).
The frescoes here are the best examples of Byzantine art. What is most significant and valuable here is not the architectural characteristics of the building but the elegant frescoes on the walls, and on the dome, and because the chapel was used for burials, the subjects of the frescoes was related with death,endless life after death, and the eternity of the Spirit.
There was a certain program, method and discipline for the interior decoration of a church. The icon of Christ the Pantokrator (almighty, ruler of all) occupies the central dome accompanied with four Archangels. On the four pendentives the writers of the four Gospels are depicted. Above the altar on the vault of the semi dome, Mary and Christ are depicted, and just below them the last supper, saints and Church fathers are depicted. On the side walls generally scenes from the life of Christ are depicted such as Baptism, Crucifixion, resurrection, etc.)
As a summary the Monastery of Chora is one of the best examples of the late Byzantine art with its mosaic depictions following an iconography sequential program taken from the Gospels. The breath taking mosaics and frescoes are definitely must see for the tourists visiting Istanbul.