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Dick Osseman | all galleries >> Istanbul >> Museums - Müzeler >> St. Irene church > Istanbul december 2009 5760.jpg
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05-DEC-2008

Istanbul december 2009 5760.jpg

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During my December 2009 visit I found excavations had been going on to the West of the St. Irene Church. I ran into the archaeologist in charge, Dr. Ferudun Özgümüş, who explained that part of what you see here is a former church of the Bishop of Byzantium.

He also indicated he’d love to show you more, or rather: dig more, so I might show more, but that funding was a constant problem. So if any of my viewers could help him? He’s on the Advisory Board for the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture year, so his pedigree is impeccable.

On most pictures you'll see the St. Irene in the background, or at any rate looming over the excavations.

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Dick Osseman03-Oct-2016 18:52
First let me state I do not like to argue with people who only have initials. Then, I do not like to be corrected when I give information straight from the horse’s mouth, i.e. the archaeologist in charge of the digs at this particular spot. He used the word “episcopion”, it may be that we should speak of a part of the bishop’s palace and annexes, such as can be seen elsewhere, for instance in Side. It would help if you gave public sources, not just capitals to put your argument forward. That St. Irene was built on the spot where formerly there was a pre-christian temple (supposedly dedicated to Venus) is widely suggested, though I get the impression this is not certain.
After some more searching I found there was an atrium connecting St. Irene and Hagia Sophia, at https://orthodoxwiki.org/Hagia_Eirene_(Constantinople) there is a plan indicating that was precisely where I took these pictures, though a bit further to the East on the same plan is some other building (?) that may have been the bishop’s house or some office.
I may be able to check on all this in a week, when I’m in a hotel nearby. Until then I do not precisely know what to think. I did read that “With the first collapse of the dome of Hagia Sophia, however, the patriarch shifted his seat temporarily to the church of Saint Irene” If that holds true your “Actually that is not the former Church of the Bishop of Byzantium. THERE IS NO SUCH THING.” would be invalid: for at least a while there was such a thing, and it is still there.
Finally, I think the Greeks would speak of Byzantion, rather than the Germanic / Turkish Byzans. But who am I?
DO
PF 03-Oct-2016 09:33
Actually that is not the former Church of the Bishop of Byzantium. THERE IS NO SUCH THING. These are the ruins of an ancient PRE-CHRISTIAN Greek temple from the age when Constantinople was called Byzans and colonized by Greeks for the first time.
Dick Osseman18-Jun-2013 17:03
part of what you see here is a former church of the Bishop of Byzantium (like I wrote).
Fizza Abbas 18-Jun-2013 09:06
What Is This ????