The dome in the Kariye musesi in Istanbul is done in a very similar way. See my posting on 'church of our saviour in chora.' I don't have 'linkin', maybe I should. I don't have time to improve on this blog, I'm working all the time when I'm not traveling and half the time I'm flat out too tired.
The upper floor, this is a double storey church.
The beautiful and very ornate templon. It is so beautiful. It sends chills down my spine.
The church is small and I didn't have much room to maneuver to take a complete picture of Jesus Christ Pantocrator. As in their architecture, the frescoes and mosaics follow a set pattern, one set down by the Orthodox church. Besides these frescoes are not for decoration, they are for the instruction of their adherents. The church is ministering to an uneducated populace. Today we call it Byzantine art but they don't think of it as art. The style and color reminds me of the ones in Kariye musesi in Istanbul. The conjecture is that the artists/painters left Constantinople after its fall and went to work in Trabzon (my next trip in June will be to Trabzon, Turkey) then to Mystra in the Peloponnese. Hence the similarity. It was very exciting to see Byzantine frescoes again. After those in Cappadocia, Turkey, it is now my quest to search out in every corner of the world, Byzantine churches and frescoes. I may as well convert to the Orthodox church.
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