1. The Komnenoi in Constantinople

When Alexios I Komnenos was crowned emperor in April 1st 1081, the family of Komnenoi had already been established in Constantinople for several generations; although their power base was Asia Minor and the high military offices that Isaac I Komnenos (emperor, 1057-1059) and his younger brother John (emperor Alexios I’s father)¹ held there in the middle of the 11th c. However, there are not many evidence of the family’s activity in Constantinople or their relations with the capital city for the decades between Isaac I's Komnenos (1057) and Alexios I's Komnenos (1081) ascension to the throne, even though Constantinople, being the center of most important political developments, held an important role in every family’s attempt to consolidate and expand its influence.

In 11th- and 12th-c. Constantinople, one could still discern the form that the city had acquired in late Antiquity. The major architectural project that had been carried out in that period, with the grandiose secular structures built to make the city equal to Rome (the Great Palace, the Hippodrome, the two Senates, the aqueduct of Valens, the massive Theodosian walls, the Golden Gate, which was in fact a triumphal arch adorned with ancient sculpture), but also with the great churches erected by imperial founders to highlight the role of the city as the capital of Christian emperors, created an urban landscape quite unique for a 12th-c. city, while forming a solid link to past emperors. On the other hand, through the centuries a medieval city had arisen among the archaic public monuments and structures, while next to the late antique public churches there were walled monastic complexes, many of them imperial foundations.²

The century of the Komnenian rule (1081-1185) was one of renovation and of a series of important changes for Constantinople. The centre of imperial power was gradually transferred from the Great Palace to the smaller palace of Blechernai; however, the area of the acropolis was restructured and preserved its symbolical weight. Furthermore, new monasteries were founded by members of the imperial family who sought to project the new imperial ideology. In the years of the Komnenoi, the foundation of private monasteries meant to become family monuments was a common imperial practice imitated by high-ranking officials all over the Empire. But to the extent that it was the transformation of the ancient obligation of the emperor to adorn the capital with a personal building program, this activity of the Komnenoi must be understood in the context of the wider effort of the dynasty to restore the grandeur of the Empire under the great emperors of the past.³

2. Public edifices

In the years of Manuel I Komnenos, the latest part of the walls at the region of Blachernai was built. It was the part laying between Tekfur Saray and the so-called «prison of Anemas». The wall cut abruptly the course of the Theodosian wall and its moat (the first tower of Manuel's wall is actually built next to the moat) and was reinforced by 13 towers.⁴ The same emperor was very active in repairing and extending public structures: in the years of his reign, works were also carried out at the sea walls, the water supply system and the column of Constantine.⁵

2.1. The Orphanotropheion

The most ambitious foundation of Alexios I was the restitution, between 1091 and 1096, of the Orphanotropheion, one of the major philanthropic institutions of the city. This complex, «a city within the city» in the area of the acropolis (which was the centre of the administration and the public life of the antique city) included a palace, at least one female convent (in fact, Skoutariotes writes of a Georgian nunnery, two more female convents and a male one), a school, poorhouses, older foundations incorporated into the renovated institution, hospices, a hospital and the leper-house in Pera, which was annexed to the Orphanotropheion. The Orphanotropheion was ricly endowed and provided not only for orphans, but also for poor people, elders, refuges and ex war prisoners who ended up in the capital. Within the context of the restitution of the Orphanotropheion, the old church of St. Paul was also renovated and its clergy was raised. Because of the long history of the Orpahnotropheion, as well as of its relation to old emperors (Leo I, Justin II), this radical restitution provided Alexios with the glory of the imperial renovator, which had always been appreciated by the populace of Constantinople. but more than this, it underlined an important aspect of the imperial ideology of the Komnenian dynasty and of Alexios I in particular: that of a moral reform modeled after monastic life, a reform that, according to Anna Komnena was applied first of all in the imperial palace and emphasized heavily on philanthropy and humility. From this point of view, the Orphanotropheion was a house both philanthropic and imperial, where the beneficiaries were put under the emperor's protection.⁶

2.2. The Blachernai palace

In the quarter of Blachernai, at the northwest extremity of the city, stood the important shrine of the Virgin of Blachernai, already in the early Byzantine period. In the years of the Komnenoi there was renewed interest for this church, when a miracoulus image of the Virgin reemerged. A few decades earlier, isaac I Komnenos had chosen this quarter for his residence. He had also renovated of refounded the church of St. Thecla that stood there, a token of his gratitude to the saint to whom he attributed a beneficial intervention during his campaign against the Pechenegs. This chapel would later gain symbolic importance for Komnenoi’s authority and legitimacy.⁷

In this very quarter there was another major structure that was linked to Alexios I: the
triklinos, the throne hall he added to the palace there. This way Alexios could associate his name with the renewed interest for the old shrine and with the first Komnenos emperor; and in the same time he set the base of the Blachernai development as the main imperial residence.⁸

2.3. The Great Palace

In the years of Manuel I Komnenos, probably before 1161, the works for a new throne hall at the Great Palace were completed. Probably this was part of the same building program that included the Mouchroutas, the hall built to accomodate the illustrious Muslim visitors. Also, additions and repairs were carried out at the Chrysotriklinos, a 6th-century structure of high ceremonial importance. These additions, in a time when the palace of the Blachernai was established as the main residence of the Emperor, secured the place of the Great Palace as the main imperial centre, as far as political symbolism went; unlike the subsequent dynasties, the Komnenoi could not abandon and completely replace the Great Palace.⁹

3. The first monastic foundations

It was actually Anna Dalassine that took the initiative to start building institutions in Constantinople in order to project the Komnenian ideology. The emperor’s mother, also known as the Komnenoi’s mother, ruled the family since her husband, kouropalates Ioannis, died in July 12 1067. She was the first of the Komnenoi who became founder of a monastery in Constantinople. Her institution, dedicated to Christ Pantepoptes, affected the direction and meaning of the Komnenoi’s buildings in many ways:

- Dedicating the monastery showed a close relationship between the founder and the Christ. From then on, the most important Komnenian institutions were dedicated only to Christ and Virgin Mary; this is an important difference to their ancestors’ activity in Constantinople during the 11th c.

- The area where the monastery was built became the center of the “Komnenian Constantinople”. The entire tenth region of the capital, a vast area from the hill behind the aqueduct of Valens to the south, to the quarter of Blachernai to the north and the Golden Horn to the east, would be where the Komnenoi would build their magnificent institutions. The only major exception to this was the complex Alexios I Komnenos built in the old city center, which included an orphanage, a monastery dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul, schools and other benevolent institutions.

- Anna Dalassini intended the monastery of Christ Pantepoptes to be her burial place. Following this way a tradition of emperors of the past centuries [from Romanos I Lekapenos (monastery of Myrelaion) to Romanos III Argyros (Panagia Peribleptos) and Constantine IX Monomachos (St. George of Mangana)], she became an example for the generations of Komenoi that followed.

4. Imperial institutions

When Anna Dalassini retired from public and political life to her monastery in the and of the 11th c., the sovereign power passed into the hands of her son, Alexios, and her daughter-in –law, Irini Doukaina. Their building answer to Anna Dalassini and her monastery of Christ Pantepoptes could not be more clear: they built a monastery complex consisting of the men’s monastery of Christ Philanthropos and the women’s monastery of Panagia Kecharitomene divided by a tall wall. The abbot of the men’s monastery was already mentioned of in 1107. The emperor and the empress were buried each in his “own” monastery; Alexios in Christ Philanthropos and Irini Doukaina in Panagia Kecharitomene. Although only the typikon of the women’s monastery has survived, there is no doubt it was an institution of great political, family and ideological importance. Irini’s women’s monastery was intended to be a retreat for her daughters and after her death (1123? 1133?) it passed to the hands of Anna Komnene. It is rather interesting that Irini Doukaina chose not to mention only her mother-in –law, Anna Dalassini, with who she had many arguments, in the monastery’s tabulae.¹⁰ The monastery complex of Christ Philanthropos and Panagia Kecharitomene was unique in structure and in character, and was more of a political and family center than a monastery.

The Komnenoi continued working on the previous generations’ ideas, completing and perfecting them. The idea from Alexios I Komnenos’ and Irini Doukaina’s time about the complex structure of institutions was expressed again in the new monastery complex of the Pantokrator (mod. Zeyrek Kilise Camii), which consisted of the church of Panagia Eleousa to the north, the church of Christ Pantokrator to the south and a parekklesion dedicated to Archangel Michael between them. This imperial institution, the biggest and wealthiest other than the imperial palaces, ever since the times of Justinian I, also had a separate men’s and women’s hospital with doctors of both sexes. These three unique churches standing on the hill behind the aqueduct of Valens were the new center of the Komnenian Constantinople, marking this part of the city with their glory until this day. Emperor Ioannis II Komnenos published the typikon of the monastery of Pantokrator in 1136, it is mentioned in Byzantine sources that the idea and the realization of its construction belonged to both the emperor and his first wife, Irini, who died in August 13 1134 and was soon canonized. Ioannis Komnenos went a big step further than his parents’ generation and their institution, giving the Pantokrator complex big dynastic importance. Ioannis II Komenos asked to be buried in the parekklesion of Archangel Michael, which was also called “Heroon” and where empress Irini was buried, while in the introduction of the monastery’s typikon he mentioned three times his wish that his son and co-emperor Alexios I would be buried there too, creating this way a dynastic mausoleum and overcoming the division of his parents’ institutions to men’s and women’s.

The complex of Pantokrator was a firm declaration of emperor Ioannis II’s superiority over his rivals, Komnenoi. Christ Pantokrator is directly associated with the emperor; the monastery’s rich decoration, of which only a part of the mosaic floor has survived, proved the emperor’s superiority and that he was chosen to reign. The Pantokrator was constructed in a period when Ioannis II was confronting many challenges and controversies, not only by his sister, Anna Komnene (who ruled over their mother’s institution Panagia Kecharitomene), but also by his younger brother, sebastokrator Isaac, who, around 1130, openly revolted against his older brother and was sent to exile. Sebastokrator Isaac renovated the monastery of Christ Saviour in Chora, near the Blachernai Palace, building a tomb for himself in the monastery. In the end of Ioannis II ‘s reign or when Manuel I Komnenos' rose to the throne in 1143, sebastokrator Isaac had to chance his plans –he built the monastery of Panagia Kosmosotira in Feres, Thrace, describing in his institution’s typikon how he was forced to abandon the thoughts of his youth and transfer his tomb to a new provincial monastery.

The political importance of the Komnenian institutions in Constantinople was obvious. The ideological rivalry caused by ambitions in the family is clearly seen both in their building activity, in their monasteries’ typika and sources of their time. The Komnenian Constantinople, especially its 10th region, mirrored the situation inside the large dynasty. A little earlier, or at the same time as the complex of the Pantokrator, a little to the north and closer to the Golden Horn, the monastery of Christ Evergetes was built. Some scholars identify it with the monument now known as Gül Camii.¹¹ This ambiguous building was Ioannis institution. Ioannis was son of the first sebastokrator Isaac, who was emperor Alexios II older brother. The monastery of Christ Evergetes was built in his father’s land, where his palace used to be, and was another attempt of the secondary branch of the Komnenoi family to prove itself equal to the “imperial branch” of the Komnenoi, emperor Alexios’ descendants. The katholikon, big and majestic, showed the founder’s ambition.

During the Komnenian period, the emperors’ triumphal entries to the capital were revived in the most official way. Constantinople was glorious during these ceremonies, like the one of 1169, when emperor Manuel I (1143-1180) carried the stone from Ephesos, which, according to the legend, the body of Christ was placed upon after its deposition from the cross, on his back, from the port of Boukoleon to the church of Theotokos of the Pharos, in the Great Palace.¹² Manuel later transferred this stone to the heroon of Archangel Michael in the monastery of Pantokrator and placed it next to the sarcophagus he had prepared for himself, in the center of the Komnenoi’s mausoleum. Knowing the dynastic importance of the monastery of Pantokrator, Manuel buried his first wife (Irini – Bertha) there and ordered his own tomb to be constructed in a way that would not require building a new institution. Andronikos I (1183-1185), Manuel’s rival and of the same age, gave his famous speech for his conclusive victory over Manuel, as reported by Niketas Choniates, in front of the late emperor’s sarcophagus. He was also the one who renovated the monastery of the saints Forty Martyrs in Constantinople. Andronikos himself proved how important the family traditions and the rivalries in the family were in the most profound way: before going victorious to the monastery of Pantokrator, he visited his father Isaac’s institution, the monastery of Kosmosotira in Feres, to prove his victory over Manuel and the entire opposite branch of the imperial dynasty before his late father.