Byzantine Churches in Thessaloniki

Many of Thessaloniki's featured tourist sites are Byzantine Churches and on my first day in the city, I came across a free pamplet called "Byzantine Churches of Thessaloniki." This was very helpful since I hadn't studied much before arriving and my friend's western oriented tour book focused more on where to get drunk than on Byzantine Churches and provided very little information about the few churches it mentioned. The intact (undoubtedly heavily restored) churches functioning as such were a refreshing change from Israel where the Byzantine layer is often destroyed as archaeologists dig through it to get to the Biblical levels and from Turkey where most of the remaining Byzantine churches serve as mosques (in Thessaloniki, many of the churches had been converted into mosques but were converted back to churches at the end of Ottoman rule). I visited nine Byzantine Churches and caught glimpses of a few others but the following were particularly memorable and illustrate different styles of Byzantine Churches:

Galerius' Rotunda of St. George (Galerius' Tomb)

The uniqueness of this church's form is due to it's having been built as a tomb and only later made into a church. The tomb was to be for the Roman ruler Galerius--who was involved in Roman leadership during the Tetrarchy that began with Diocletian and ended with Constantine.
Galerius spent a lot of time in Thessaloniki between 299 and 303 c.e. and had his palace in the city as well an arch dedicated to his having defeated the Persians around 298 c.e. These remains are archaeological highlights of Thessaloniki today. Galerius didn't die there as he seems to have planned on doing so the tomb lay empty until the Emperor Constantine ordered that the empty tomb be converted into a church dedicated to the Archangels.

This transformation from tomb to church involved the addition of a sancturary as an extention of the east bay of the rotunda (shown here protruding towards the photographer from the cylinder-shaped building). There are supports at each side of the apse which were added after an earthquake.

Later, Christians added mosaics to the building. The apse is decorated with a 9th century fresco of the Ascension. The interior of the highest drum before the dome features mosaics interspersed with now enclosed windows. This is explained as having been an architectural feature that allowed significant amount of light to illuminate the gold on the mosaics and interior of the dome.

This church was interesting for me because I have read that the octogonal churches in the Holy Land that usually mark a holy site (such as Capernaum, the original Churches of the Holy Sepulcre and original Church of the Nativity among others) are modeled after Roman emperors' tombs. In this case, it may have simply been that a monument was available and Constantine, having recently adopted Christianity, decided to put the building to use.

Hagia Sofia (Holy Wisdom)

The 5th century Hagia Sofia church was inspired by the famous church with the same name in Constantinople / Istanbul. It may be that Thessaloniki's Hagia Sofia is a copy of the church in Constantinople that was destroyed before the larger Hagia Sofia was built by Justinian in the 6th century. Still, Thessaloniki's Hagia Sofia has features that serve as reminds of the renowned Hagia Sofia. First, there is a dome in the center with supporting pilars. The marble of the Constantinople's Hagia Sofia that stands out is maroon, deep green, and deep green and the walls in Thessaloniki's version are painted in the same tones. The upper gallery of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul is painted in a dirty yellow with floral designs and Thessaloniki's exterior is a similar color. Finally, both Istanbul and Thessaloniki's Hagia Sofia churches are in a domed Basilica style.

The Saint Demetrios Church is an early Byzantine Basilica (without a dome) and also dates from teh 5th century. Although a reconstruction after having been destroyed in a fire in the 20th century, the Saint Demetrios Church is interesting for it's once standard 5 aisle form. Details such as columns and capitals from the original building and the crypt give the church a feeling of uniqueness. The crypt was part of a Roman bath-house.

These 5th century Basilicas served were designed for the processional liturgy of the early Byzantine church. Such events could involved thousands of worshippers who moved around within the building.

St. Katherine's Church & The Church of the Holy Apostles
Encountering St. Katherine's Church (pictured here) and The Church of the Holy Apostles lifted my Thessaloniki Byzantine church tour from the level of energetic intellectual curiousity to absorbed aesthetic appreciation. I first encountered The Church of the Holy Apostles when my companions had had enough and went back to the hostel to put in some time at the beach. I calculated that being done for the day would make it nearly impossible to hit all the listed Byzantine Churches so I stayed in town for an uncharacteristicly late evening.

I don't know what it is about these two churches that struck my aesthetic chord. As an observer or art, it's rare that I experience the sublime level of appreciation until after I've studied something pretty thoroughly--I reached that point with the exterior of Byzantine churches after chasing down quite a number of them and reading some brief commentaries about features from different periods. Most of my reading about things Byzantine is about emperors and diplomatic and religious issues.

Both of the churches were both built in the early 14th century, during the Palaiologan dynasty near the end of the Byzantine Empire. These are "cross-in-square" churches, which were "dominant in [late] Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture until the close of the Middle Ages ... The idea was very simple and based entirely on structural elements deeply rooted in the Byzantine tradition: that of a dome rising above four barrel vaults, arranged so as to form a Greek cross." This type of church was small and "designed ... to hold a congregation of about one hundred ... the cross-in-square church arose in a monastic milieu. A Byzantine monestary normally numbered a brotherhood of between twenty and one hundred" (Mango, Cyril. Byzantine Architecture, 178). These churches were used for more private worship involving individual prayer and the interaction between the worshipper and icons. This type of worship lead to churches having numerous small spaces including private chapels (Ousterhout, Master Builders of Byzantium, 9-10).

The structure of the two churches is similar--they have five domes with the central and corner domes being nearly the same size. The height of the relatively small domes above the roof creates room for windows with stepped arches around small windows. I think this is what makes the exterior so appealing to me. In addition, each of the churches had appealing unique features: The Church of the Holy Apostles has decorative brickwork on its exterior while the St. Katherine's Church has double and triple openings on the facade.

The interior design of the churches of this period draw praise from art commentators but I wasn't too absorbed by this, although I have been in various of Istanbul's Byzantine churches.

The Church of the Prophet Elijah

The Church of the Prophet Elijah was the surprise of my visit. I had read about Mt. Athos and the style of church that is typical there and was pleased to find that such a church was on display in Thessaloniki. Like St. Katherines and the Church of the Holy Apostles, this church was built in the later Byzantine period which featured small churches built for monastic groups.

The Church of the Prophet Elijah's compact structure shares common features of later Byzantine church design but is also an example of a unique type. The lateral apses were added in order to provide space for monastic choirs. This design is "limited to Mount Athos, where about twenty examples are preserved, and to related areas in Northern Greece and in the Balkans" (Ousterhout, 29 note 40).

Thinking about Byzantine Churches in Thessaloniki brought me an appreciation of the last period of Byzantine: the Palaiologan Dynasty (previously, my interest in Byzantine had focused on the early period when the Byzantine Empire was much stronger and when the creeds were crafted). It turns out that the Palaiologan period was the high point of Byzantine art--and is said to have influenced, or even sparked, the Italian renaissance.

Works Cited

Mango, Cyril. Byzantine Architecture. 1974. Harry N. Arams, Inc.

Ousterhout, Master Builders of Byzantium. 2007. University of Pennsylvania Museum Publication.

Bible Tourism in Northern Israel

This week's trip to the Sea of Galilee was less well planned than I am accustomed to. It started out as other recent trips have--a trip in a local bus across Jerusalem to the central bus station and an intercity bus for a couple of hours. But we (David Sandberg, who is visiting from the states and I) only had a rough outline of where we would be going and we had a long list of what we wanted to see. We ended up hiking a lot less than expected--I don't mind hot weather but David wasn't doing too well in it--so we saw the sites on our list more quickly than anticipated.

We arrived in Tiberias Monday evening, did some shopping and walked around town. The next morning, we hopped on rented bicycles for a little less than 10 mile ride to the Christian sites on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It turns out that the bikes, aside from being heavy mountain bikes, had some minor technical problems that made the trip a bit more of a challenge than it should have been. But we managed to get first to a church that commemorates the Beatitutes and then to one commemorating the miracle of multiplying the loaves and fishes and finally to Capernaum. At each site, we read scriptures that went along with the site.

By the time we were done seeing the sites, we were in for a ride back to Tiberias in hot weather. That afternoon we took a bus to Beit Shean--a small Israeli city around 25 kilometers south of the Sea of Galilee. We checked into a small bed and breakfast, after being told that there were no rooms available in the hostel, and relaxed--I started reading and before long was ready to sleep--it was 7:40 p.m. The next morning, we visited Beit Shean's archaeology park. It features the very interesting remains of a Roman City--the capitol of the Decapolis. The most interesting features are a Roman style theater, Roman bath house, mosaics, and a Roman bridge over a river. The city was located at a strategic point along the Jordan Valley and the Jezreel Valley so it was fought over many times and there is a tall tel with many layers. I also took note of the story of King Saul's demise at the nearby Mount Gilboa and the connection with Beit Shean noted in 1 Samuel:

Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, Saul’s sons. And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers. Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together. And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that were on the other side Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul; All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

After Beit Shean, I felt like we should go to Nazareth. As we got off the bus near the Basilica of the Annunciation, I asked a young lady and her mother where they were from (I had noticed that they spoke english). They are from Logan, Utah. We visited a few churches together in Nazareth. My favorite was the simple "Church Synagogue." The current building was built in the 12th century but it was supposedly built over a synagogue where Jesus' family likely worshipped as Jesus was growing up and where Jesus first publically suggested that he is the Messiah (Luke 4:16-30):

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

We caught a sight of the cliff from which tradition claims the folks of Nazareth wanted to toss Jesus to his death as we and trekked down a long street, around a corner and up the hill to catch the bus to our next destination.

David and I then decided to backtrack a bit in preparation for visits to Mount Tabor and Megiddo the next day. Mt. Tabor is a candidate as the site of the Transfiguration. The hike was very steep--pretty much straight up (and later straight down) so we decided to hit the dirt roads and make it longer but less steep. It ended up being a reasonably long hike. Upon reaching the top, we read the account of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13):

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afriad. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

Reading a handful of verses about a scriptural event while you're at a site where it happened, or at is commemorated, has an amazing effect. I wasn't in the mood for the church though. It was built in the 20th century over remains of a 4th century Byzantine church and a 12th century crusader church. Before descending we sat down again and read the verses more carefully.

Then we were off to Megiddo--an archaeology site of an ancient strategic outpost and the future battle of Armaggedon. The sites has a great view of the valley (but it was a dusty day so there are no good photos to show) including Nazareth and Mount Tabor to the northeast. There are remains of various buildings but I took note of the city's gate, the grain storage pit, water system and horse stables. The scriptural connection I took note of was 1 Kings 9:15-19:

And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife. And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land, And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

While the the mentioned tax is more important in connection with the building of the Temple, I took note of the cities for his chariots--one of which was Megiddo. We dragged ourselves down to the main intersection and waited around 10 minutes for the direct bus to Jerusalem. I took out my mini Israel map and followed along as we passed arab villages and cities, some on Israel's side of the wall and some on the other, to the east of the highway. Before long we were back in Jerusalem to rest before a few last excursions before my role as David's tour guide in Israel comes to an end.

Around the Sea of Galilee

The bus from Jerusalem to Tiberias went along a highway that goes through an area of arab villages (within Israel) and is, at points, right next to the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank. We then went west through Wadi Ara past the arab city of Umm al-Fahim. It was a bit memory lane for me as I had visited this area on a previous visit to Israel. We then went down the other side of the hill into the Jezreel Valley. I didn't see the archaeology site of Megiddo but thought a bit about Armaggedon and the future battle in that valley. Soon I saw Nazareth from the south (the main road on which we traveled goes through the Israeli city of Afula in the valley below. We stopped in Afula as is customary on long inter-city bus rides but I felt insecure about getting off in search of water (even though my bottle had been empty since Jerusalem). That was fortunate because the usual fifteen minute stop seem about half that long and I was left to wonder how many people ended their bus ride sooner than they had hoped. Soon we were passing below Mt. Tabor--the site believed by many to be the setting for the Transfiguration. I noticed the sign for the hiking trail and took note of where I would ask the bus driver to stop if I were to want to hike that small mountain in the near future. We continued a few minutes more and started down the other side of another hill and the Sea of Galilee came into view. What a peaceful lake! I was soon to enjoy a long weekend of looking at and across it from various vantage points. The bus soon descended to below sea level and on to the city of Tiberias.

Despite my having planned ahead, a lack of signage lead me to wander around the city in search of the recommended hostel. I went south out of the city and then north out of the city and felt like at least I had my bearings. I decided that I would get into just any hostel and the second one I checked out happened to be the one I had been searching for from the beginning. It was clean and seemed new and, like I expect from a hostel, cheap. I didn't have all that much daylight time left so I stocked up on groceries and settled in for an evening of reading about Hammath--the ancient settlement south of Tiberias. The next morning I arrived there early with a bit of understanding of the site. The hot spring had been the draw of the exact location and I dipped my hand in and confirmed that the water is hot. Along with the ancient synagogue (see other blog entry), I looked around at the Byzantine era city wall, gate and roadway. Finally, I walked through the Ottoman era bathhouse that is now a small museum featuring archaeological finds from the site. Across the street, I noticed the modern spa that uses the waters of the hot spring.

It was Friday and there was more Judaism in store for me. In the early afternoon, I met up with a friend who likes to attend Jewish services and we went in search of information about the messianic congregation. We found out that we wouldn't be able to make it to that service but we ran into an adherent of kabbalim. He invited us to their sabbath service. The group whose meeting we attended is that which some singer named Madonna participates in. It was too fast paced for me. Normally in synagogue, I can barely keep up with the liturgy since I haven't chanted it hundreds of times before and because my hebrew still has its limits. But here, the idea wasn't to read every word but to scan pages at a time, subconsciously absorbing the bolded letters which probably were supposed to convey some meaning when absorbed in that way. As far as I can tell, the exercise had no effect on my theology or sense of inner peace.

Things slowed down and we were invited to join the dinner. That was a mellow paced discussion in which we were told that kabbalah could be practiced by anyone, it isn't just for Jews. I later talked to other informed folks about this group and was informed that the group we visited is very much on the fringe--orthodox Jews treat Kabbalah as the mysteries that only the initiated should be exposed to.

Saturday we went to the Tiberias branch of the Mormon church. Meetings are held in what looks like a rich guy's house (which the church owns) with a wonderful view of the Sea of Galilee.
That afternoon, a few of us threw ourselves a picnic on the south end of the Sea of Galilee and then I lobbied for visiting a site. My friend (not the one I went to Synagogue the evening before) is a licensed tour guide in Israel and he took us to a very interesting site that I don't recall having been aware of before--Susita. Susita was a hellenistic village at the time of Jesus and the archaeologic work there has uncovered a cardo (main street) and a number of buildings. There are pillars all over the place a rock channel for water brought from across a valley. Most interestingly, the site seems to fit the New Testament story of the guy who had the legion of devils expelled from him into a herd of pigs. There is a hill with a bunch of caves, which may have been used for graves; flint so the guy had something to cut himself with; and, of course, the hellenistic folks would have pigs while Jews would not have (dietary cleanliness rules). So we thought about Jesus ascending to the village, encountering the possessed guy ... and the pigs running down into the Sea of Galilee. We considered how the inhabitants may not have liked having their pig supply diminished. I thought that perhaps Jesus was showing his Jewishness a bit by cleaning up the food supply. It was one of those discovery moments that makes educational tourism so interesting.

The next day, we visited the church of the Anunciation in Nazareth. We read about Mary being informed about her upcoming motherhood from one of the gospels and we went around to the various depictions of Mary with Jesus from countries around the world.

After Nazareth, we went to Sippori. It is north of Nazareth and west of Tiberias. I think it is one of the better archaeology sites in all of Israel. It had an ancient synagogue with mosaics similar to those in Hammath Tiberias (which I'll write about separately) and there were houses / palaces / public buildings with many other mosaics. There was also a cardo with more pilars laying around and a Roman theater. The last feature we took in was the cistern. Water storage is pretty important around here and cisterns can sometimes be more interesting than they sound. This one was shaped by a fault in the earth so it felt a bit like the Narrows in Zion's National Park.

I decided to call it a weekend and went to the bus stop to see when I could get on a bus back to Jerusalem. I was informed that I would have to wait until I forget what time unless I was willing to go on the slower bus through the Jordan Valley. I soon realized that I wanted to go on that bus. Not because it was slower (it stopped a bunch of Israeli sites including small settlements in the east side of the West Bank) but because it would be a different path than the route to Tiberias and I could look at different stuff. Before long, I was looking into Jordan and then noticing Israeli settlements as well as arab villages or Bedouin camp. A bit north of Jericho, the bus started ascending to Jerusalem.

Enshrouded in Byzantine Bethlehem

A few days ago I had a really good Palestinian dinner. There were the typical arab salads but the hummus was better than normal. The rest of the food was great too, but best of all, taboon! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafa . There used to be a restaurant at the entrance to Bethlehem that had excellent taboon bread and I fell in love. It may be that it's crunchy but whatever it is, give me some with some hummus and other arab salads on it and I'm a happy guy. I never used to order a main dish because that, considered an appetizer, was my target. I briefly thought of that restaurant as we entered the city and again as I ate the wonderful meal a few hours later. The restaurant is closed now--probably it just moved because it was really close to the border with Jerusalem. The border held my attention much longer than the beloved simple pleasure of taboon with hummus.

As we approached Bethlehem, we were confronted with the separation barrier and an airport like checkpoint. When I was here in 2003, the construction of this wall / fence was the hot topic but was only beginning to be built. Now, it's an accepted, though by many despised, aspect of the landscape (I'll express opinions relating to the wall soon on my opinion blog). Since the wall is a political reality I haven't witnessed previously, and since it was a controversy I followed years ago, I'm interested in taking a few excursions to see where it divides the Palestinian from Israel and Jewish settlements. The graffiti is a nice touch for a tourist who might otherwise lose interest of the architecturally plain, okay, aesthetically ruinous, wall and we had the taxi driver stop a couple hundred meters after starting to let us take pictures of more art work as we returned to confront it as it winded around the city. As we arrived at Beit Sahur, we had a clear view a Jerusalem suburb (Israeli perspective) / settlement (Palestinian perspective, largely agreed to by the international community), the building of which, was a five star controvery issue from a previous era--Har Homa. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0DB1531F930A25752C1A96E958260. The project is still being expanded but it has come a long way since the tree clearing started around a decade ago.

The visit was on a Saturday afternoon--Sabbath as practiced by Mormons in Israel for what I understand to be practical reasons. I had been at church a couple of hours before but the though didn't even cross my mind that perhaps I should have thoughts centered on Jesus as I approached the city of his birth. The layer of visual aids for political discussions didn't dominate the day, however. I am interested in Byzantine history and the church of the Nativity is an architecturally exceptional Byzantine edifice (I'll blog about that later, too). Of course the special feature is that this is understood to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ. You walk down the stairs from the main level of the old style church with icons, hanging lamps--basically lots of stuff that's hard for a westerner without a specialized education in the stuff to understand--and you're in a pretty simple 'cave' room where the birth is said to have taken place. A birth--deity entering the mess that we know of as life and a couple taking on responsibilities considerably beyond the awe of generic parenthood. A few short decades later and then a short and exceptionally controversial ministry leading up to the most significant of all events commemorated by another small secluded place enshrouded within another noisy, dark, and hard to comprehend, originally, Byzantine church.