Archdiocese of Constantinople

[Fr. Boutros Elzein]

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Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God Valinou

Following the sea-walls along the shore of the Golden Horn, before reaching the Church of Saint Demetrios Xyloportas one arrives at the Church of the Mother of God Valinou.
Built and rebuilt like many others after the great fires which devastated the district, it is in an abject condition today. Externally the building is in urgent need of conservation, while the interior is slowly but steadily being destroyed by damp.
The attribute Balinou takes one back lo Magister Pavlinos who held office under Theodosios fl. nicknamed 'the Small' (409-450).
The church, whose finances were in a pitiful state, was on the point of being sold when Meletios Pigas, Patriarch of Alexandria, rescued it by settling its debts in 1597. Later it came under the protection of the rulers of Wallachia. Nonetheless, its economic well-being, though at one time it did take a turn for the better, can never have been on a sound footing, for Gedeon notes that "the church treasury gave meagre sums to works of public benefit".
There is no mention το be found of a school, he continues, and attributes this to the likelihood of the children of the parish attending classes at the adjacent school of Saint Demetrios at Xyloporta.
Ismini Kapandai
Churches in Constantinople
Nikos Ghinis – Constantinos Stratos

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[Fr. Boutros Elzein]

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Church of Saint Demetrios Xyloportas

The Church of Saint Demetrios Xyloportas, "known as 'tou Kanavi'," writes A.G. Paspatis, "was an ancient church with a dome, its interior decorated with mosaics. This church was destroyed and the present timber-roofed building was erected in the early years of the 18th century".
Notwithstanding, no other source mentions a Byzantine church -"it is never mentioned in Byzantine writings"- and the only connection which can be made is through the attribute 'Kanavis', linking it with the patrician Nikolaos Kanavos who was living at the time of the first conquest (1204).
Renovated successively in 1730, 1835, 1933 and I960, as evidenced by inscribed tablets on the walls, it was restored most recently in 1995, at the expense of G. Vassilopoulos.
The church is of considerable historical importance as it accommodated the Patriarchate for three years. For a period of about one hundred and forty years after the Fall of the City in 1453 the Patriarchate had no fixed abode. Once Aghia Sophia had been converted into a Muslim shrine the scat of the Great Church of Christ was for a while at the Church of the Holy Apostles, but it was later required to abandon that noble Byzantine church and to be received at the Church of the Virgin Pammakaristos. About a century afterwards it moved from there to the district of the Golden Horn. It left the Church of Saint Demetrios Xyloportas for the Virgin Paramythia to end up eventually, in 1601 or 1602, at the Monastery of Saint George (in the Phanar district) where it has remained ever since.

Ismini Kapandai

Churches in Constantinople

Nikos Ghinis – Constantinos Stratos

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[Fr. Boutros Elzein]

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Church of the Virgin of Souda Egri Kapou

The Church of the Virgin of Souda Egrikapou, a timber-roofed basilica built on the same site where once the 13th-century Byzantine Church of Saint Nikitas had stood, close to the Palaces of Blachernæ and the Egri Kapou Gate, was renovated in 1999 by Ioannis Andropoulos. However, the wooden building and the entrance to the complex on one side of the church had already been totally destroyed by fire.

We know that the church was set fire to in 1640 and again in 1728. An official Ottoman †††††††† refers to the latter event and permits repairs to be made on the grounds that "since the conquest this church has remained in the possession of the Orthodox Greeks ".
There used to be a Greek school and a medical centre and asylum within the enclosure of the Church of the Virgin of Souda.
Beneath the altar of the church is an Aghiasma, approached down fourteen stone steps. It is a space with a vaulted roof and marble floor and contains a marble reservoir. According to Gedeon it is a remnant of a Byzantine ablutionary.
The asylum in the church complex, described in an inscription as
serving indeed as a free hospital
a new Siloam for all who attend it,
was resorted to by the unfortunate insane, but ceased its mission in February 1839.
Ismini Kapandai
Churches in Constantinople
Nikos Ghinis – Constantinos Stratos

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[Fr. Boutros Elzein]

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Church of Saint George Antiphonitis in the Phanar

Of impressive size, this three-aisled, stone-built and timber-roofed basilica is a handsome building of 1830. It has a very fine narthex and an iron bell tower. The Church of Saint George Potiras, recently restored by two brothers, Christos and Ninos Elmacioglou (1998), once belonged to the family of "the Logothetis (Chief Secretary) of the Great Church, Georgios Potiras".
The church stands at the far end of a delightful garden with shady trees. The courtyard is protected by an enclosure wall of particularly line workmanship.
Gedeon confirms there is no earlier mention of the church than one dating to 1648. Nevertheless, it is possible it served briefly as a patriarchal dwelling when the Patriarchate was evicted from the Pammakaristos.
The attribute 'Antiphonitis', which should be 'Christ Antiphonitis', arises from a delightful legend. In bygone times, it is said, there was a usurer who insisted that another Christian owed him money. The poor man attempted in vain to prove it was not so. In the end, despairing, he made a proposal: "Let's go to the icon of Christ. If your conscience allows you to, repeat those lies there ". The usurer went along with him, and when the icon heard him it contradicted him ('antiphonise') and the poor man was vindicated.
There are some fine marble reliefs and some inscriptions. An enormous earthenware jar is embedded in the right-hand wall of the narthex to receive offerings of olive oil. Next to it is an inscription with an exhortation:
Christian, whenever you bring an offering lo the altar
Your pious hand should pour the olive oil herein
In Photira 1.12.1883

Ismini Kapandai

Churches in Constantinople


Nikos Ghinis – Constantinos Stratos

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[Fr. Boutros Elzein]

Church of the Virgin of the Heavens Salmatovroukiou

The level of the kalderimia, the stone-paved streets of Constantinople rises whenever they are repaired, for the new layer of flag-stones is laid over the old. That is why the doorway into the courtyard of the Church of the Virgin of the Heavens, whose feast day is 15 August, is now half-buried.
Regrettably, both the church itself and the school and other buildings within the enclosure, like the 'Romaic' or Greek school opposite, are now in bad repair.
The attribute «Kyria ton Ouranon», Queen of the Heavens, may be explained as a Greek rendering of the Armenian word 'Takavor' or 'Takouaran'. These are names by which Armenians refer to the Virgin, and as the old church had once belonged to a noble Armenian family its dedication was changed first to 'Ta Koronia' and later to 'Kyria ton Ouranon'.
The church complex is cared for by Vassilis Trapzanoglou and his wife Marianthi. Born in Trabizond, Trapzanoglou has been a church-warden for forty years on end and remembers the times when the parish consisted of forty families, of which only one remains today: his own.
The church is timber-roofed and the nave or central aisle is tunnel-vaulted. It possesses a fine templo and, in the north aisle, an Aghiasma. The sacred fountain-head is of marble and has two spouts, it is incised with a cross and the inscription "Aghiasma of Saint Kyriaki", below which are the words "Dedicated by L. Toptsoglou 1959".

Ismini Kapandai

Churches in Constantinople
Nikos Ghinis – Constantinos Stratos

[Fr. Boutros Elzein]

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Church of Saint George Antiphonitis in the Phanar

Of impressive size, this three-aisled, stone-built and timber-roofed basilica is a handsome building of 1830. It has a very fine narthex and an iron bell tower. The Church of Saint George Potiras, recently restored by two brothers, Christos and Ninos Elmacioglou (1998), once belonged to the family of "the Logothetis (Chief Secretary) of the Great Church, Georgios Potiras".
The church stands at the far end of a delightful garden with shady trees. The courtyard is protected by an enclosure wall of particularly line workmanship.
Gedeon confirms there is no earlier mention of the church than one dating to 1648. Nevertheless, it is possible it served briefly as a patriarchal dwelling when the Patriarchate was evicted from the Pammakaristos.
The attribute 'Antiphonitis', which should be 'Christ Antiphonitis', arises from a delightful legend. In bygone times, it is said, there was a usurer who insisted that another Christian owed him money. The poor man attempted in vain to prove it was not so. In the end, despairing, he made a proposal: "Let's go to the icon of Christ. If your conscience allows you to, repeat those lies there ". The usurer went along with him, and when the icon heard him it contradicted him ('antiphonise') and the poor man was vindicated.
There are some fine marble reliefs and some inscriptions. An enormous earthenware jar is embedded in the right-hand wall of the narthex to receive offerings of olive oil. Next to it is an inscription with an exhortation:
Christian, whenever you bring an offering lo the altar
Your pious hand should pour the olive oil herein
In Photira 1.12.1883
Ismini Kapandai
Churches in Constantinople
Nikos Ghinis – Constantinos Stratos

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[Fr. Boutros Elzein]

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Church of the Virgin Hadzergiotissa Tekfoursaray

On the Sixth Hill, the highest in the City, at the centre of one of the most destitute quarters and only a stone's throw from breath-taking Chora Monastery is the church complex of the Virgin Hadzergiotissa. Gedeon states that "it suffered the well known fate of neighbouring churches, being destroyed by fire and rebuilt at the same time as they were. The present-day building, begun in 1836, was completed in January 1837".
Having passed through the entrance one descends a few steps to reach the level of the paved courtyard in which the church stands. Inserted in the west facade is a marble relief with an icon of the Virgin and the date 1837.
Immediately behind the sanctuary is the Aghiasma of Saint Paraskevi in a vaulted underground chamber.
The property is now in a distressing state of disrepair. If it were not for the constant efforts of the verger and parish priest, whom the Patriarch honoured with the dignity of Syngelos on 10 June 1999, and the few remaining parishioners, matters would be far worse.
Damp, a sly adversary, is rotting the timbers; that the plaster is cracking and peeling is all too evident on the wall next to the stairway up to the gynæcium, the women's gallery.
The unheated, locked-up buildings are doomed so long as they lack the constant presence and warmth of human beings. Nonetheless, here, as with almost all the churches in Constantinople, irrespective of whether the congregation is large or small, everything is spotless and cared for, and the oil lamps are kept burning.
Ismini Kapandai
Churches in Constantinople
Nikos Ghinis – Constantinos Stratos

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