A Church in the Country

http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/courses/2015/HUM54/files/original/fbaf842eaa9a3b7d6c4df9f13a6a1001.jpg

A map of Constantinople and the walls of Constantine and Theodosius. Chora Church is outside of the walls of Constantine, but within the Theodosian walls. It is the small cross closest to the latter walls.

The first incarnation of the Chora Church was a chapel built in the early fourth century, though the exact construction date is not known (1). The chapel was dedicated to Jesus Christ, hence the official title of the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora. Chora is a Greek phrase for “in the country,” as this chapel was originally located outside the city. At the time of construction, Chora Church was beyond the walls of Constantine the Great, which encircled the city center.

The location and surrounding fields of Chora Church were considered a holy space before the structure was even built, as this area was the burial site of relics of Saint Babylas and his 84 disciples who has been martyred in the late third century (1). This necropolis was chosen as the site for Chora Church, thereby imbuing the chapel with a holiness from the get-go. Christians treated this land and the chapel with deep respect.

http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/courses/2015/HUM54/files/original/81ea936e82464573182d69816cc9f962.jpg

A mosaic of Mary surrounded by Emperors Constantine and Justinian. Constantine presents her with the city of Constantinople and Justinian with the Hagia Sophia. Constantine's original city did not contain the Chora Church.

When the city of Constantinople expanded in the early fifth century and the newly-constructed Theodosian walls contained the city, the chapel in the chora was technically no longer in the chora, or country, at all, but rather contained within the city. Nevertheless, the name of the church stuck, which demonstrated the first instance of this lieu de mémoire’s ability to block the work of forgetting (2). Though the church was contained within the city much, much comparatively longer to the time that it spent “in the country,” the name of Chora stuck and is still used today.

The Chora Church was renovated and expanded upon by Emperor Justinian in 536 after the original chapel built upon this holy site had been ruined by an earthquake, and this true structural beginning of the church that stands today (1).

(1) Chora Museum. History.
(2) Nora, Pierre. 1989. Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations 26, pp. 7-24.