Description
The masonry has been partly built adopting the technique of the recessed brick, typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period. In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar's bed. Due to that, the thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the bricks layers.
The south and the north church are both cross domed with polygonal apses having seven sides, and not five as was typical in the Byzantine architecture of the previous century. The apses have also triple lancet windows flanked by niches.
The southern church is the largest. To the East it has an esonarthex, which later was extended up to the imperial chapel. The church is surmounted by two domes, one over the naos and the other over the matroneum (a separate upper gallery for women) of the narthex. The decoration of this church, which was very rich, disappeared almost completely, except for some fragments of marble in the presbyterium and, above all, a beautiful floor in opus sectile made with colored marbles worked in cloisonné technique, where human and animal figures are represented. Moreover, fragments of colored glass suggest that the windows of this church were once made of stained glass bearing figures of Saints. The mosaics of the interior, representing the apostles and the life of Christ, were still visible - although defaced - in the 18th century.
The imperial chapel is covered by barrel vaults and is surmounted by two domes too.
The north church has only one dome, and is notable for its frieze, carved with a dog's tooth and triangle motif running along the eaves line.
Close to the Mosque is placed the small Şeyh Süleyman Mescidi, a small byzantine building belonging also to the Pantokrator Monastery.
As a whole, this complex represents the most typical example of architecture of the Byzantine middle period in Constantinople.
Read more about this topic: Zeyrek Mosque
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