Kalenderhane Camii
(Theotokos Kyriotissa)



The long-awaited study of the Kalenderhane Camii by C.L. Striker, D. Kuban, et al., in now in press with Von Zabern and should appear by the end of 1997. A major monument of the late 12th century, the building was painstakingly excavated and restored in the 1960s. It preserves substantial elements of its interior decoration from several periods. The 13th-century fresco cycle of the Life of St. Francis found here, one of the most important discoveries from the period of the Latin Occupation, is now on display in the Archaeological Museum.

The Striker-Kuban study promises to provide a new chapter in the archaeological history of the city--for example, the pottery sequence should complement that from the Sarachane (St. Polyeuktos) excavations. A. Berger's identification of the church as the Theotokos Kyriotissa has been generally accepted, the name apparently deriving from the Late Antique oikos known as Tou Kyrou.