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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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