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The Basilica of Constantia, Cyprus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012
Extract
In the course of the winter of 1924–25 the remains of one of the largest fourth-century Christian churches, outside of Rome, were discovered on the site of the Byzantine city of Constantia in Cyprus by the Curator of Ancient Monuments. The church belongs to the Basilican type with five aisles and four rows of columns, a type which preceded the regular Byzantine or domical plan with its thick walls and abutments. Its dimensions, exclusive of remains of attached buildings, porches, etc., are 184 ft. from east to west and 148 ft. from north to south. The central nave is 38 ft. wide and the double aisles on either side cover a width of 52 ft. in each case, and the total area under its wooden roofs was consequently over 27,000 square feet. In the centre of the eastern wall is a semicircular apse of the same width as the central nave.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1928
References
page 344 note 1 Hackett in his History of the Church of Cyprus has much to say about Epiphanios, S., Archbishop of Constantia. On p. 34 he refers to ‘the famous metropolitan church which had been erected by the great Epiphanios’, and apparently gives as his authorities: Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. i. 4; Abul Pharag. Chron.; Theophanes (P. G. cviii. 701); Paul Diaconus, xix; Kedrenos (P. G. cxxi); and Chron. de Michel le Grand (Armenian) quoted by Sathas, ii, p. 22.Google Scholar
page 346 note 1 One of these columns has been ornamented in a curious way by cutting the necking under the acanthus capital into a circular wreath of leafage, an unusual treatment at any period.
page 346 note 2 Can this have been the tomb of the Archbishop over which the unseemly struggle took place in 403, as described by Hackett on p. 406?
page 347 note 1 Vincent, , Bethlehem, Paris, 1914.Google Scholar