1. Location and origin of the name of the Theotokos in Chalkoprateia

The Theotokos (Mother of God) of Chalkoprateia was one of the most important churches of Constantinople dedicated to the Virgin Mary until the church at Blachernai overtook this place. It was located to the north of the Patriarchate and in a small distance from Hagia Sophia.¹ The mid-16^th century traveller P. Gilles notes that Chalkoprateia was not far from the Milion.² According to a written source the name derives from the installation in the area of Jewish craftsmen who manufactured and traded bronze objects,³ already by the time of Constantine the Great. The district was also known as the district of Chartoprateia (mean. of paper trade), because there were workshops of writing material.⁴

2. Literary sources

2.1. The construction of the Byzantine church

Byzantine writers provide us with a great number of information on the foundation of church. However they are often contradictory when we try to estimate its date of construction. The construction of the monument is attributed to the emperor Theodosios II (408-450) according to George the Monk, ⁵ Michael Glykas⁶ and Pseudo-Kodinos.⁷Theophanes the Confessor provides the exact date for the foundation of church, that is in the fortieth year of Theodosios’ reign, that is, in 448.⁸ Different opinions have been brought forward by Kedrenos⁹ and Symeon Metaphrastes.¹⁰ They attribute its foundation to the empress Pulcheria, sister of Theodosiοs II. On the contrary, in the third novella¹¹ of Justinian I (527-565) the church is attributed to Verina, wife of Leo I (457-474). A 9^th-c. hagiographic text mentions Emperor Zeno (476-491) as the founder of the church.¹² During the 6^th century Justin II (565-578), before he ascended the throne, repaired the church which had suffered damages due to an earthquake.¹³ At the same time he built two chapels, the Hagia Soros, where the girdle and the robe of Virgin Mary were supposedly kept, and the chapel of Saint James Adelphotheos (James the Just, Jacob the Brother of the Lord).¹⁴

In the past, scholars generally accepted the attribution of the church to Pulcheria, without excluding the possibility of Verina's contribution in the completion of the work.¹⁵ However, according to C. Mango, the tradition of Pulcheria founding important churches of the Theotokos in Constantinople and seeing to the translation of important relics, such as the maphorion and the girdle of the Virgin, is subsequent and inaccurate.¹⁶ On the contrary, Verina, who had already built the chapel of Soros in the Blachernai region to host the maphorion, probably founded the basilica of Chalkoprateia too, in the first years of Zeno's reign and before 478, when she lost her authority in Constantinople.¹⁷ As for the tradition on the girdle allegedly kept in the church of the Chalkoprateia, it is post-8^th-century, when this relic is first reported as a complement of the maphorion and of the same origin with it.¹⁸ Justin II repaired the church after a destructing earthquake in the mid-6^th century, and he completed its mosaic decoration.

2.2. The Byzantine church in the centre of historical developments

In the course of its history, the church became the scene of important historical events. In the years of Justinian I the church was used as the patriarchal seat for five years (532-537), from the destruction of the church of Hagia Sophia in the fires of the Nika riot until the completion of the Justinianic church.¹⁹ Also in the church of Chalkoprateia the council of 536 was convened, which condemned the Monophysites and the Monophysite ex-patriarch Anthimos I.²⁰ The acts of the council were confirmed in the novella of August 6, 536.²¹

Due to the significant economic crisis, Emperor Alexiοs I Komnenos (1081-1118) had to confiscate ecclesiastical furniture²² in order to face the Norman threat. The golden doors of the church of Chalkoprateia were removed at the time.²³ An annual compensation from the imperial treasury was arranged in return.²⁴ Finally, under Latin rule the church was used by the Latin clergy.²⁵

3. The architecture of the church

3.1. The history of research

Only a few parts of the the church have been preserved today. Private residences and enterprises were erected above the foundations of the Byzantine church, as well as a mosque (Acem Aga Mescidi), which today is dilapidated (fig. 1).²⁶ However, studies from the beginning of the 20^th century helped in its reconstruction. In 1912 Mamboury recognized the ruins of the church,²⁷ and as few years later D. Lathoud - P. Pezaud published photographs and a concise plan of the site.²⁸ Firatli and Rollas brought to life the only surviving capital of the church during excavations;²⁹ W. Kleiss discovered a cruciform crypt in the sanctuary and a centrally-planned structure adjoined to the north wall of the church’s atrium, which he has interpreted as a baptistery.³⁰ In 1971, T. Mathews clarified some uncertain points of the church’s architecture,³¹ while W. Müller-Wiener mainly discusses the history of the monument.³²

3.2. The architectural type

The church belongs to the type of the three-aisled basilica with a three-sided apse and a narthex to the west. Further to the west it had a three-porticoed atrium, with dimensions similar to those of the atrium of the Stoudios basilica (fig. 2).³³ At the northwest corner there was a centrally-planned structure, which is generally considered as a baptistery.³⁴ A marble fountain, in the Museum of Constantinople since 1886, allegedly stood here.³⁵ C. Mango, however, considering the iconography of the fragmentary preserved mosaics, has suggested another view: that the octagon was tha chapel of St. James Adelphotheos.³⁶

Until 1971, the apse of the bema of the church, its southeast corner and its north wall were preserved up to the half of their initial height.³⁷ It was an all-brick construction (fig. 3); and access was through doors on the east wall.³⁸ A cruciform crypt was discovered in front of the apse of the bema (fig. 4). The church was remodelled under Basil I (867-886), when it acquired a dome above the central aisle.³⁹

The sources attest the existence of a solea and of galleries;⁴⁰ they also report two chapels, of the Hagia Soros⁴¹ and of St James Adelphotheos. A single source speaks of the existence of a third chapel, dedicated to Christ, in which the miraculous icon of Christ Saviour was allegedly kept in the 12^th century.⁴²

4. The internal decoration

The iconographic programme of the church has been lost. However, the sources inform us of a mosaic cycle from the life of Theotokos, beginning with the birth of the Virgin Mary and including the Nativity. This cycle went back to the building of the church. In the mid-6^th century, when Justin II repaired the church, he completed the decoration with two more mosaics: the Adoration of the Magi, in some unspecified location, and the Annunciation in the conch of the apse. According to C. Mango it was an iconographic variation with few parallels, in which the Child appears in a medallion in front of Mary's bust, in order for the pre-incarnated Logos to be distinguished from his human mother. This mosaic was replaced by a cross in Iconoclasm, under Constantine V Kopronymos, while after the Seventh Ecumenical Council, patriarch Tarasios saw to it being remade in the same location.⁴³

The sparce remains preserved were parts of the sculptural decoration of the church. A capital in the form of a basket, decorated with leaves and abacus (fig. 5) dates in the years of Emperor Basil I (867-886). Moreover the base of a column, that most probably belonged to a gallery colonnade, as well as two small columns of the templon have been found (fig. 6).⁴⁴ Finally, we know from the sources that, in Justin's repairs, the church was adorned with a gilded coffered ceiling and doors made of silver, electrum and gold.

5. The frescoes of the octagon structure