Nea Ekklesia

1. History

The Nea Ekklēsia (mean. “New Church”) was one of the commissions of the Emperor Basil I (867-86).1 It was built within or next to the Great Palace, a short distance east of the Chrysotriklinos,2 on the former tzykanisterion. The construction had already begun by 8773 and was personally directed and supervised by Basil.4 According to some sources, a number of Constantinopolitan churches had been stripped off to provide the mosaic tesserae and marble slabs for Nea's interior decoration.5 The enkainia (εγκαίνια, mean. consecration ceremony) of the church took place on May 1, 880 and was performed by the Patriarch Photios.6 The new foundation was assigned with its own clergy and administration, and played an important part in ceremonies of the Palace.7 By the 12th century, the church was converted into a monastery and was known as the New Monastery (Nea Monē). Isaac II Angelos (1185-95) deprived the Nea of many of its furnishings and liturgical vessels.8 During the Latin occupation it served as a palatine chapel. It survived the Ottoman conquest of the city and was torn down probably in 1490.9

2. Description in the Vita Basilii

Our knowledge of the Nea and its appearance depends on several written accounts and a few pictorial renderings prior to its destruction. The main literary evidence is the description of the church in the Vita Basilii, within the section addressing Basil’s building achievements in the capital.10 The church was dedicated to Christ, Archangel Gabriel, Prophet Elijah, the Mother of God, and St. Nicholas, as an expression of Basil’s gratitude “for their benevolence on his behalf”.11 Its interior was decorated with polychrome marble wall revetment and opus sectile pavements, mosaic compositions on the vaults, silver-plated and gem-studded chancel screen, altar table, and synthronon, and silken-cloth hangings. The building was crowned with five domes, covered with mosaic images inside and with “brass that resembles gold” outside. On the western side, there was an atrium with two elaborate fountains, made of porphyry and marble. Two barrel-vaulted porticoes ran along the north and south sides, and extended all the way to the new tzykanisterion. The treasury and the sacristy of the church were built on the seaward side of this courtyard. Between two porticoes and east of the church there was an enclosed garden called Mesokepion.12 The vault of the north portico was decorated with scenes depicting the martyrdom of various saints.13

Other sources provide little more information beyond that contained in the Vita Basilii. It should be added that the church stood on a terrace, under which there was a substructure.14 Upon the entrance of the emperor into the naos, incenses were burnt within the substructure and aromatic smoke rose through openings in the floor.15

3. Reconstructions

Only a vague idea of the plan can be extracted from the Vita Basilii and other accounts. Most scholars agree that the five-domed structure imply an arrangement with one dome in the center and the other four over the corners of a square plan, therefore assuming the use of some kind of cross-in-square plan, also employed in the contemporary churches of the Lips and Myrelaion monasteries.16 Other scholars keep open the possibility that the church may have been of a cruciform plan, with domes placed over the arms of the cross, as it was the case in the Holy Apostles church.17 However, the first solution seems more probable, given that cross-in-square was the predominant plan during this period and that there were five dedications, i.e. five sanctuaries. That means that, in addition to the main liturgical space, dedicated to Christ, there were four subsidiary chapels, each with its own dome. The chapels presumably occupied the corner bays. Such an organization resembles that of the Theotokos Church of Lips Monastery, with four chapels in the corners on the gallery level.18 On the other hand, the four chapels and pertaining domes may have been accommodated within an ambulatory.19

4. Evaluation

No matter how scarce and obscure the sources are, the information they provide suggests that the Nea was an ambitious project. It was the main monument-statement of the reign of Basil I, the New Era, which will bring back the glorious times of Constantine and Justinian and even surpass them. That was emphasized by the epithet ‘Nea,’ as well as with the more or less deliberate choice of the five-domed design. However, such a design was just an architectural expression of transformed and new beliefs, ideas, and needs, which were going to form art and architecture in the subsequent centuries. Its success in this respect and the popularity it gained are testified in the extraordinary diffusion of the five-domed design in Byzantium, Balkans, and Russia.



1. The Vita Basilii lists twenty-five churches at Constantinople and another six in the suburbs restored or built by Basil. Eight of those were newly built and all of them were inside the Imperial Palace, Mango, C., Byzantine Architecture (New York 1976), p. 196.

2. Mango, C., “Nea Ekklesia,” Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (Oxford - New York 1991), p. 1446; Paul Magdalino cites Liutprand of Cremona, who described the church as standing “next to the palace, to the east,” Magdalino, P., “Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I,” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 37 (1987), p. 61.

3. Jenkins, R. J. H. - Mango, C., “The Date and Significance of the Tenth Homily of Photius,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 9-10 (1956), p. 130, n. 35

4. Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents, (London 21986), p. 194; Magdalino, P., “Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I,” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 37 (1987), p. 51

5. According to the Patria Konstantinoupoleos, ed. Th. Preger, Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum 2 (Leipzig 1907; repr. New York 1975), p. 288, Basil took off the mosaic tesserae and marble slabs from Justinian’s mausoleum in the Holy Apostles. Symeon Logothete is less precise: “The Emperor Basil took away many pieces of marble and mosaic cubes from many churches on account of the Nea Ekklēsia,” see Leonis Grammatici Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn 1842), p. 257 transl. Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents, (London 21986), p. 181, n. 1.

6. Jenkins, R. J.H. - Mango, C., “The Date and Significance of the Tenth Homily of Photius,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 9-10 (1956), pp. 125, 130.

7. Mango, C., “Nea Ekklesia,” Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (Oxford - New York 1991), p. 1446; Magdalino, P., “Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I,” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 37 (1987), p. 61.

8. Mango, C., “Nea Ekklesia,” Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (Oxford - New York 1991), p. 1446. According to Niketas Choniates, “he [Isaac II] also denuded of all its sacred furniture and vessels the famous church in the palace which is called the Nea monastery,” cited after Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents (London 21986), p. 237. Material and accessories acquired in this way were used for restoration of the church of St. Michael in Anaplous.

9. Mango, C., “Nea Ekklesia,” Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (Oxford - New York 1991), p. 1446.

10. Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn 1838), 5.83-86, pp. 325-29; transl. Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents,(London 21986), pp. 194-95. The Vita Basilii constitutes the fifth book of Theophanes Continuatus and was written ca. 950 by Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or someone from his milieu. Another document, the Tenth Homily of the Patriarch Photios, was for long time regarded as containing an ekphrasis of the Nea Ekklēsia. R. J. H. Jenkins and C. Mango have argued that it was actually delivered on the occasion of dedication of the church of the Virgin of Pharos, Jenkins, R. J. H. - Mango, C., “The Date and Significance of the Tenth Homily of Photius,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 9-10 (1956), pp. 123-140.

11. Vita Basilii, cited after Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents (London 21986), p. 194. Only here is Archangel Gabriel mentioned. Other relevant sources mention Archangel Michael instead of Gabriel, but they all date to the 10th c. or later. It seems that none of them is actually wrong and that the original dedication was to Gabriel with Michael taking his place probably during the reign of Leo VI, see Magdalino, P., “Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I,” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 37 (1987), p. 56, n. 26.

12. Vita Basilii, cited after Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents, (London 21986), p. 194-6.

13. Vita Basilii, cited after Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents, (London 21986), p. 196. These are the only figural decorations mentioned at any section of the building. The text says nothing at all about the church's iconographic programme. According to the Book of Ceremonies, ed. J.J. Reiske, (Bonn 1829-30), pp. 118, 121, there was a portrait of the founder, Basil I, in the north aisle.

14. Krautheimer, R., Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (New Haven-London 41986), p. 355.

15. Majeska, G.,  Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Washington DC 1984), pp. 37-38; Krautheimer, R., Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (New Haven-London 41986), p. 356.

16. Mango, C., Byzantine Architecture (New York 1976), p. 196; Krautheimer, R., Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (New Haven-London 41986), pp. 341, 355; S. Ćurčić, “Architectural Reconsideration of the Nea Ekklesia,” Sixth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, Abstracts of Papers (Ohio 1980), p. 11-12. Ćurčić asuggests that the interior space was organized in a way similar to that of the church of the monastery of Nerezi, near Skopje.

17. H. Buchwald, “Western Asia Minor as a Generator of Architectural Forms in the Byzantine Period: Provincial Back-Wash or Dynamic Center of Production?” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 34 (1984), pp. 278-79.

18. The chapels in Lips Monastery may have had their own domes elevated on drums, see Megaw, A. H. S., “The Original Form of the Theotokos Church of Constantine Lips,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 18 (1964), pp. 279-98.

19. Jenkins, R. J. H. - Mango, C., “The Date and Significance of the Tenth Homily of Photius,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 9-10 (1956), p. 137, and Magdalino, P., “Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I,” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 37 (1987), p. 51.