Church of the Holy Apostles

The Church of the Holy Apostles (Greek: Ἅγιοι Ἀπόστολοι, Agioi Apostoloi; Turkish: Havariyyun Kilisesi), also known as the Imperial Polyandrion (imperial cemetery), was a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox church in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Holy Apostles briefly became the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

[3] The original Church of the Holy Apostles was dedicated in about 330 by Constantine the Great, the founder of Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire.

The church was unfinished when Constantine died in 337, and it was completed by his son and successor Constantius II, who buried his father's remains there.

The relics of Constantine and the three saints were re-installed in the new church, and a mausoleum for Justinian and his family was built at the end of its northern arm.

But whereas the church of the Holy Wisdom was in the city's oldest part, that of the Holy Apostles stood in the newer part of the expanded imperial capital, on the great thoroughfare called Mese Odós (English: Central Street), and became the city's busiest church.

[7] Little is known about the appearance of the original church except that it was cross-shaped which means it was shaped as a cross, but the historian Eusebius (c. 263–339) glowing description of Constantine's mausoleum and the surrounding grounds before Constantius' church was built:[8] This building he carried to a vast height, and brilliantly decorated by encasing it from the foundation to the roof with marble slabs of various colors.

The external covering, which protected the building from the rain, was of brass instead of tiles; and this too was splendidly and profusely adorned with gold, and reflected the sun’s rays with a brilliancy which dazzled the distant beholder.

Adjoining these porticos were ranges of stately chambers, with baths and promenades, and besides many apartments adapted to the use of those who had charge of the place.

At the crossing of the two straight lines, that is to say at about the middle, there was set aside a place which may not be entered by those who may not celebrate the mysteries; this with good reason they call the "sanctuary."

That portion of the roof which is above the sanctuary, as it is called, is built, in the center at least, on a plan resembling the Church of Sophia, except that it is inferior to it in size.

And the arms of the building, which are four,... were roofed on the same plan as the central portion, but this one feature is lacking: underneath the domes the masonry is not pierced by windows.

[16] Although the sarcophagi of the emperors were raided by Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, some of the oldest porphyry sarcophagi have survived: two in the atrium of the Hagia Eirene, four outside the Archaeological Museum, and a fragment of a seventh in the museum's "Istanbul through the Ages" pavilion; this fragment is believed to be from the sarcophagus of Constantine I.