OTtrrrrim 



Photograph by II. G. Dwight 

 THE WHITE TOWER, BUILT BY SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT (SEE PAGE 21 1 ) 



homonym in Constantinople, it is a domed 

 basilica, and it was long considered to be 

 a provincial copy of that great original. 

 As a matter of fact, the Saloniki chnrch 

 is the original, having been built a hun- 

 dred years or more the earlier, at the end 

 of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth 

 century (see picture, page 218). 



For the student of Byzantine archi- 

 tecture, therefore, it has a place of its 

 own, as being a tentative solution of 

 problems which Justinian's cathedral was 

 so triumphantly to surmount. The 

 church has suffered disastrously by fire, 

 earthquake, and restoration. 



But the original lines of the structure 

 remain, the pillars and beautiful capitals 

 of wind-blown acanthus, and two fine 

 fragments of mosaic. In the vault of the 

 bema is a gold cross inscribed in a circle, 

 on a rich blue-green ground, while the 

 golden semi-dome of the apse contains a 

 seated Virgin and child — of the eighth 

 century. The principal mosaic, an As- 

 cension, with decorative green trees be- 

 tween the standing figures, lines the great 

 dome. It is supposed to date from 645, 



though the figure of Christ in the center 

 is older still. 



SOME TURKS TOLERANT 



I first saw these interesting mosaics 

 while Saloniki was still a Turkish town. 

 And it struck me as confirming in the 

 Saloniki Turk, leader in the movement of 

 his country toward western civilization, 

 a tolerance less characteristic of his Asi- 

 atic brother — that decorations contraven- 

 ing every canon of orthodox Moham- 

 medanism should remain to offend the 

 eyes of the faithful. There are more 

 mosaics to be seen in the larger St. 

 Sophia of Constantinople, but none of 

 them represent human forms or orna- 

 ment the central parts of the structure. 



This impression, repeated in St. 

 George, was strengthened by the Cathe- 

 dral of St. Demetrius. That five-aisled 

 basilica, dating from the beginning of the 

 fifth century, although restored and en- 

 larged in the seventh, is the largest and 

 best preserved of the Saloniki churches, 

 as well as one of the finest structures of 

 its type in existence. 



219 



