The Sekbanbaşı Mescidi or a Lesser-Known Middle Byzantine Church Typology at Constantinople

Abstract

Cross-in-square churches are an exceptional feature for the middle Byzantine architecture of Constantinople. The simpler variant of this architectural type is widely known from ‘provincial’ contexts but appears seldomly throughout the city. It should not be absent from modern scholarship, since some few examples of this type of church had survived well into the early 20th century. Because of this paucity of scholarship, the history, functions, and phases of these small edifices are mostly unknown. The now lost Sekbanbaşı Mescidi is a case in point.