Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Editors
Brigitte Pitarakis and Gü lru Tanman
ISBN: 978-605-4642-76-2
T his vo lume brings together presentations from the symposium Life ls Short, Art Long:
The Art of Healing in Byzantium-New Perspectives, held at the Pera Museum on March 14,2015, and
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a few addirio nal contributio ns.
their cult beginning in the fifth century led to its true origins being lost and
replaced by conflicting accounts. The Kosmas and Damianos of conceriı here
are the ones martyred by Lysias, governor of Cilicia during the reign of Diocle-
tian.6 According to the most common version of their vita, the twins were born
in Arabia and received their training in Syria. They later lived in Aigai (today
Yumurtalık) in Cilicia. Soon after their martyrdom, the region of Cyrrhus, in
Northern Syria, became the center of their cult. 7 The Mirades of Kosmas and
Damianos were rewritten by Andrew of Crete, Peter of Argos, Theodore II
Laskaris, and Maximos the Deacon around 1300. 8 Several churches were dedi-
cated to Sts. Kosmas and Damianos in the eastern provinces of the empire. Ex-
cept for one in Edessa, built between 454 and 470, all the other churches were
erected in the sixth century, in the cities of Antioch, Apamea, and Gerasa and in
the provinces of Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Pamphilia. 9 The first chapel dedicated
to the Sts. Kosmas and Damianos in the West was built by Pope Symmachus in
the vicinity of Sarrta Maria Maggiore in Rome between 498 and 514. 10
The most detailed description of the sanctuary and its environs is found
in Prokopios. According to him, the sanctuary sat on top of a very steep hill
at the end of the Golden Horn a nd had its own harbor. Upon recovering tinople, it was a clocking area and may therefore have had no connection to
from a serious illness with the help of Kosmas and Damianos, Justinian I (r. the Kosmidion. 19
527-565) enlarged and bea utified the existing buildings of the sanctuary. 12
Prokopios says that the sanctu ary of the Kosmidion had existed "from olden Another confusing pi ece of information is found in the Mirades of Sts.
times," and despite the a bsence of archaeological evidence to support the Kosmas and Damianos, where the saints' monastic complex is deseribed as
theory, there is consensus that it was found ed in the fifth century. 13 being located in the Blachernai area. 20 lt is uncer tain to how extensive an
area the toponym was applied.
According to different versions of the Patria Konstantinoupoleos, the
Kosmidion was located in an area called either Ta Paulinesor Ta Pa ulinou. Since it was located outside the city walls, the Kosmidion complex was a
The latter name, which is found in the most recent and worst manuscripts prime targer for invading forces. During the Avars' raid on Constantinople
of the Patria, suggests that the neighborhood was naın ~.d after Pa ulinus, in 623, the monastery of Sts. Kosmas and Damianos was looted, and in the
a friend of the emperor Theodosios Il (r. 408-450) who on the eve of the second attack of the Avars, in 626, the monastery was burnt. 2 1 The manas-
emperor's marriage to Athenais converted her to Christianity and renamed tic complex was reestablished in 711. 22
her Eudokia. 14 Legend hold s that the e ınp eror presented a huge apple from
Phrygia to Eudokia, who later gave it to Paulinos. 15 The jea lous eınperor The Kosmidion is briefly mentioned in the sources during the reign of
then invited Paulinos to the palace, where he was attacked and lost one ear. emperor Theophilos (r. 829-842),2 3 a nd it is known that after the Bulgar-
The intervention of Sts. Kosmas a nd Damianos saved him. Because of this ia ns attacked Constantinople in September 924, peace talks between the
incident, the author of the Patria claims, Paulinos dedicated the church be- emperor Romanos I Lekapenos a nd the Bulgarian tsar Symeon were held in
ing built on hi s property to his saviors. Soon after completing the church, the vicinity of the Kosmidion. 24
he was exec uted.
The Kosmidion underwent severa l extensions, particularly in the elev-
Use of the name Ta Paulinesin the ın ore reliable manuscripts of the Pa- enth century, during the reign of Michael IV (r. 1034-1041), who not only
tria has raised doubts a bo ut this acco unt. The feminine form indicates that ad d ed new chapels a nd fountains but a Iso had a n enclos ing wa ll bu ilt for the
in tr uth the Kosmidion was bui lt on the property of a woman, namely Pa uli - enti re complex. Michael was buried in the monastery that he had enl arged. 25
na. According to the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, there In 1047, during the re ign of Emperor Consta ntin e IX Monom achos, the
were three women named Paulina who li ved in the fourth century, 16 and monastic complex was destroyed by the rebe l Tornikios on September 25
two who lived in the fifth. 17 lt has been arg ued that the Paulina most likely and the debri s dumped into the sea. 26
to h ave been co nnected w ith th e sanctu ary was the morher of Leontios, who
led an un successful uprising in 484 during the reign of Zeno . 18 In t he Iate elevent h-century in the struggle agai nst Nikephoro III Bota-
neiates, Alexios Komnenos and hi s fo llowers, including the genera l George
There was ind eed an area in Constantinople called Ta Paulinou, but
according to a seventb-centur y wine contract between Egypt and Constan-
19 F. Morelli , "Vino sul N il o T. Va ri e 3, un viagg io a osta ntin opoli in nı eno e un a
tran azione inn ovativa ," Zeitschrift (ür Papyrologie und Epigraphik ı75 (20ıO):
12 Prokopi o , Buildings, tran s. H. B. Dew ing w ith G. Down ey ( a mbridge, M ass., 215. Si nce t he Ko s ınidi o n was on the Go lden Horn , one ıni g ht th in k that t hi s clock-
1954), 1.6.4- 8. in g place was nearby, but the fact t hat it does not mention the Kosnı idi o n o r its pi er
13 A. M. Ta lbot, "Pi lgrim age to H ea lin g Shrines: Th e Ev iel ence of Mirael e Accou nt ," se enı ssuspic ious.
Dumbartoıı Oaks Papers 56 (2002): 155. 20 Rupprecht, Cosınae et Daıniani, no. 7, p. 2 ; no. ı 7, p. 40; no. 18, p. 45; no. 20, p. 49.
14 Scriptares Originuııı Constantiııopo litaııaruın, ed . T. Preger, vol. 2.3 (Leipzig, ı907) , 2ı Chronicon Pascha le, O l y ınpi ad 350.
chap. ı46 , pp. 26ı-63: A. Berger, tra ns., A c couııts of Medieval Coııs taııtinople : The 22 A. Berger, Unte rs u chuııgen zu deıı Patria Konstantinupoleos (Bo nn , ı 988), 672 .
Patria, Dumbarton Oaks M edi eva l Library 24 (Ca mbridge, M ass., 2013), 201. 23 Berger, Unte rsuchuııgeıı, 435.
15 Chroııi co ıı Paschale, 284-628 A.D., trans. M . W hitby and M. Whitby (Liverpool, 24 S. Runciman, The Eınperor Roınanus Lecapenus aııd His Reign (Cambr id ge, ı963),
ı989), O lymp iad 300. 90- 91.
ı6 A. H . M. Jones, J. Morris, and J. R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later 25 Mic hael Psellos, C h roııographia, tra ns. E. R. A. Sewter (Londo n, ı95 3), bk. 4,
Roman Empire (hereafter PLRE), vol. ı, A.D. 260- 395 (Caınbrid c, 1971), 675; para . 31.
J. R. Martinda le, Th e Prosopography of the Later Roman Rlllpirc, vo l. 2, A.D. 26 Arıncnia and the Crusades: 10th to 12th Ceııturies. The Chronicle of Matthew of
395-527 (Cambr idge, ı980), 845. Edesstl, 11\111 ~ . /\ . E. Dostouri an (Lan ha m, Md., ı993), 75; Urfa'lı Mateos Vekayi-
ı7 PLRE 2:845. 11111111'' 1 ('i ll l!ı) Il i' Papaz Grigor'un Zeyli (1136-1162), trans. H . D. A ndreasy-
18 M a ngo," ulr o f S3ints os mn a nel Danıian ," 190 () 1, :ın (/\ ııln 1ıı ı , I 'IHl), H .
132 133
Palaiologos, chose the Kosmidion as a safe havenY Members of the First Given the expansions made during the Kosmidion's long history, the
Crusade were not permitted to enter Constantinople in 1096, so they made complex must have had an enclosing wall, a series of chapels, a main
their camp around the Kosmidion monastery. 28 Though there is no specific church, a refectory, a dormitory, and all the secondary buildings needed in
and clear information about the monastery during the Latin occupation a monastic complex. Several theories have been floated about the location
(1204-1261) following the Fourth Crusade, it is most probably to be identi- of the Kosmidion, including the neighborhood of Eyüp, 38 Tokmak Tepe (im-
fied with the one deseribed as the "castle of Bohemund." 29 mediately outside the Blachernai walls), 39 and Pierre Loti hill (in the middle
of the Eyüp cemetery). 40
The monastery had a large library.30 Rights to the use of certain lands
and tax exemptions were set outina chrysobull dated to 1342-1344. 31 Be- Tokmak Tepe was a Turkish cemetery, probably created soon after the
cause of financial difficulties, the monks of the Kosmidion were forced to Ottoman conquest for soldiers who died during the siege. With time, it
seli some of the monastery's sacred relics. A document. dated to July 1401 grew into a large cemetery. In the early 1970s, it was removed to make
confirms that the monks made a commitment to neve~ do so again. 32 Rus- way for the construction of a road and a new bridge over the Golden
sian pilgrims of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries mention the gold- Horn. There are no records of archaeological material being found dur-
covered skulls of Sts. Kosmas and Damianos in the Kosmidion. 33 lt has been ing the construction. Aerial photographs from the 1940s show no visible
suggested that the Hazret-i Ca bir mosque, in particular its diakonikon, was archaeological remains that might relate to the Kosmidion or its surraund-
the place in which these relics were housed. This theory is based on frescoes ing walls. Although this hill is close to Blachernai, it is not steep nor does
discovered outside the monastic church that depict Sts. Kosmas and Dami-
it have a bay in front of it.
anos with the arehangel Michael. 34 lt has also been suggested that relics of
Sts. Kosmas and Damianos were once in the monastery of the Pantokra-
Pierre Loti hill, which is in the midst of one of the largest Islamic cem-
tar on Mount Athos and that in the ninth century they were brought to
eteriesin the world, at Eyüp, is too far from Blachernai and does not have a
Hildesheim, from where they spread to Essen, Bremen, Munich, Cologne,
navigable bay. The same applies to the center of Eyüp. In addition, neither
Goslar, Duderstadt, Bruges, Florence, and Salamanca. 35
of the candidates has archaeological material to support the theory that
the Kosmidion may have been located there. Despite having supporters, 41
The Kosmidion is mentioned for the last time in accounts of the battle
between Musa and Süleyman, the two sons of Yıldırım Bayezid. The battle the view that the Blachernai and Kosmidion complexes were fairly close in
of Kosınidion took place on June 15, 1410, and ended in Musa's defeat. The location and shared a common bath may not be an accurate inference from
Byzantines had supported Süleyman w ith the expectation of regaining some the limited extant textnal evidence. The discovery of new archaeological
lost territories. 36 lt has been suggested that the Kosmidion continued to exist ev id ence referenced above throws new light on the issue and should be given
until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 _37 ser ious consideration.
37 Jan in , Les eglises et fes ınonastines, 297-99. 4 1 M : ıııı•,o, " ( ı ılı ıı l ı ııııı ~ <:os ııın s ~nd Damian," 19 1.
134 135
Fig. 2 First terrace wa ll (p hoto: H a llık Çetinkaya) Fig. 4 Recessed brick on the second terrace wa ll (photo: Haluk Çetinkaya)
parts of it were altered during the Ottoman period (Fig. 2). There are four
ing wall with the intention of halting the progression of the crack, which
large pila sters in the wall. The second of these pilasters has a large crack
had it continued, might have destroyed the wall entirely. The most impor-
(Fig. 3), which perhaps occurred after one of the earthquakes between 1063
tant feature of the wall is the recessed-brick technique (Fig. 4), which was
and 1065 .42 Because of the crack- observable at the top of Figure 3 at the
used widely across the Byzantine Empire between the eleventh and fifteenth
juncture of the two walls- a buttress was added next to the already exist-
centuries 43• The ea rliest examples are from Old Rus, of Iate tenth-century
42 F. Vercleyen, "Tremblements de terre a Constantinople: L'impact sur la population,"
Byzantion 58.1 (1988): 155-73. G. Downey, "Earthqu akes at Constantin o1lc and 43 P. L. Vouıtnpnu l o s, "Th o ıı cca l ed Co urse Technique: Further Examples and Few
Rcııı,ı..ı,~:· / ı tlullllı lı ılrr () sterreichische·n Byzantir~. istik
28 (1979): 247-84.
Vicinity, A.D. 342- 1454," Specuhtm 30 ("1955): 600.
136 137
covered. The house must have been destroyed before the twentieth century,
since old aerial photographs indicare the !and being used for agriculture.
The second wall, which survives in parts and is barely visible because of
vegetation, is approximately 16 meters away. The first part of the wall is 6
meters long (Fig. 5), and the second and third parts are each approximately
4 meters long. All were built with alternaring bands of stone and bricks.
Most parts have seven bands of bricks and four bands of roughly hewn
limestone. The bricks measure 4 x 37 x 35 centimeters, whereas stones,
though mostly irregular, are roughly 35 x 14 x 20 centimeters, except for
Fig. 6 Indoor pool at the Köprü lü house (photo: H a l lık Çetinka ya )
the pieces at the corners, which are 45 x 14 x 20 centimeters.
Three large cells on the outer enclosure wall contain large arched re-
cesses measuring 2 x 3 meters that must have been used by the servants or
guards of the Köprülü family (Fig. 7). In 2006 there was a deep well in the
middle of this fiat land, near the indoor pool, but for safety reasons it was