Chalke

The Chalke Gate (Greek: Χαλκῆ Πύλη), was the main ceremonial entrance (vestibule) to the Great Palace of Constantinople in the Byzantine period.

[7][8][9] This rebuilding was facilitated by the fact that his predecessor, Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969), had enclosed the palace precinct with a new wall of reduced girth, to which the Chalke was no longer attached.

[7] The main gatehouse, denuded of its bronze gates by Emperor Isaac II Angelos during his first reign (1185–1195), is not mentioned by Byzantine chroniclers after c. 1200.

[13] Justinian's Chalke was a rectangular building, with four engaged piers supporting a central dome on pendentives, which in turn rested on four barrel arches in the typical Byzantine fashion.

[15] The relation of the Church of Christ Chalkites with the gate is unclear; Cyril Mango suggested that it was located to its left, but it has also been proposed that it was actually built atop the gatehouse itself.

[7] The vestibule's interior decoration is also described by Procopius: the walls were decorated with slabs of multi-colored marble, while the ceilings were covered with mosaics, which depicted Justinian and his wife Theodora flanked by the Senate, as well as the victories of Belisarius in the Vandalic and Gothic wars and his triumphal return bearing spoils, defeated kings and kingdoms to his emperor.

[26] Consequently, its removal, in 726 or 730, by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741), was both a major political statement and a spark for violent rioting in the city, and marked the beginning of the official prohibition of icons in the Empire.