tograph b; 



Koch 



THE TURKISH CANDY SELLER: SALONIKI 



There is no law requiring the screening of food in Saloniki, and the traveler here, as 

 well as elsewhere in southeastern Europe, wonders how many hundred million germs are 

 sold with everv sale of street-side sweetmeats. 



monument in the city, is St. George. 

 During the long Turkish period it was 

 the mosque of Hortaji Suleiman Effendi. 

 St. George is unlike any other church in 

 Saloniki or Constantinople, in that it is 

 of circular form (see page 220). 



Its design, more characteristic of Italy 

 than of the Levant, reminds us that Sa- 

 loniki was more directly under Italian 

 influence than under that of Constanti- 

 nople, and that until the eighth century 

 the city was, in religious matters, subject 

 to Rome. The exterior of the church 

 has no great effect and the dome is 

 masked by a false roof. The interior is 

 more imposing. The immensely thick 

 walls contain eight vaulted recesses. Two 

 of these are entrances, while a third, cut- 

 ting through the full height of the wall, 

 leads into the apse. The barrel vaulting 

 of the recesses is encrusted with mosaics 

 of great antiquity. 



DID ROSI KXOW HOW TO SPELL? 



Having begun to drop into ruin, these 

 mosaics were handed' over, some years 



since, to a restorer, who painted in what 

 he lacked the means to replace. He also 

 had the courage to sign his name, Rosi, 

 to the result, causing the present witness 

 of his infamies to question whether he 

 even knew how to spell. His imitations, 

 however, and the fragments of original 

 mosaic give an idea of the invention and 

 decorative sense that covered those ceil- 

 ings with birds, flowers, and linear de- 

 signs in blue and green and gold. 



The dome of the church contains the 

 finest mosaic in Saloniki and one of the 

 finest in the world. The Roman, the pre- 

 Christian air of St. George, is emphasized 

 again in that series of classic-looking per- 

 sonages and buildings, divided architect- 

 urally into eight parts, corresponding to 

 the eight openings below, but united by a 

 mosaic balustrade that seems to guard 

 the spring of the dome. At one point of 

 the balustrade a peacock perches, his tail 

 drooping magnificently toward the spec- 

 tator. 



Not the least interesting of the churches 

 of Saloniki is St. Sophia. Like its greater 



