The Church of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople

I have many simmering anxieties as a scholar. Among them is my worry about having to publish the North Basilica at Polis on Cyprus by myself. This means immersing myself again in the literature of Early Christian architectural history. Among the most interesting features of the North Basilica is the presence of apsidal exedrae on the north and south wall of the church. This is not only unprecedented on Cyprus, but rather unusual for Early Christian architecture in general.

As an effort to slowly dip my toes back into the waters of architectural history, I read Fabian Stroth’s volume in the Cambridge Elements series The Church of St. Polyeuktos at Constantinople (2024). I started with this book partly because this church has always fascinated me (and if I recall correctly my architectural history advisor in graduate school, James Morganstern, worked at the dig) and Stroth clearly recognizes the buildings legendary status as the best point of departure for his survey of the church’s architecture. 

For those who don’t know, construction in the 1960s revealed this church and prompted emergency salvage excavations under the direction of Martin Harrison. The church was built in the 6th century by Anicia Juliana who was the last surviving member of the Theodosian dynasty. She evidently had a rivalry with Justinian and this had long framed the construction of this church as part of the motivation for Justinian to build Ay. Sophia. Anicia Juliana’s poetic inscription which appeared on a series of entablature blogs confirms the identification of the church and seals its unique place in both architectural and literary history of the capital as this inscription also appears in the Greek Anthology. 

Stroth has little patience for such romantic interpretations of the church and its place in the architectural history of the capital. While not dismissing the church’s opulent character, which inescapable on the basis of the poetic inscription and fragmentary sculpture, Stroth explores the place of the church’s basilica style architectural remains in the correspondence between Harrison and the various collaborators and reviewers who helped shape the final publication of the building. Stroth’s work is useful in establishing that this building did not have a dome and reinforcing Jonathan Bardill’s argument along those lines. Instead, the building had a series of three exedrae surmounted by half domes along the north and south sides of the main aisle. Interestingly, Stroth does not venture a guess as to the function of these exedrae and generally does not address liturgical concerns in his work beyond admiration of the ambo and solea. This is probably wise.

By unpacking the place of St. Polyeuktos in relation to other churches in Constantinople and releasing the building from the burden of its legends, Stroth opened the door to more sober analysis of the building which demonstrated the remarkable flexibility of the basilica plan as a framework for architectural and decorative innovation. The elaborate nature of some of the architectural sculpture (with hints of the “Orientalizing” influence of Sassanid) alone rewards greater attention as it transforms the staid form of the basilica into a brilliant framework for artistic creativity.

Stroth’s attention to the later life of the church was commendable if cursory. The transformation of the atrium to a cemetery, for example, likely testifies to the changing function of that space liturgically (and in keeping with the post-10th century date of this change) as well as the changing function of this particular church. Locating the building in its urban context more fully would have helped me to understand this transformation which seems not uncommon among buildings across the Mediterranean (and echoes with the transformation of the South and North basilicas on Cyprus, although this is probably irrelevant beyond my own interest!).

There’s not much more to my take on this little book than that. It’s under 100 pages, well-written, and an interesting take on an interesting building. It was the perfect way to dip our toes back into