So on Saturday, dispite the drizzle and cold weather [30 degrees...burrr] Britney, Annie, and myself went to tour the Byzantine Museum and Rotonda with my art teacher. Our first stop was the Rotonda.
[cross landscaped into the bushes]
[fountain outside the Rotonda]
It was built originally as a Pagan Church. Then when Christianity became legal it was converted into a Christian church. Then the Turks took over the region and made it into a mosque and since they don’t believe it icons they covered and ruined much of the art work that was designed by the Christians and the Pagans. During the time of the Pagan religion there was an opening in the middle of the dome for the smoke to escape.
So there was a man-hole cover below the hole so when it rained the water could escape. When it was converted into a Christian church the hole was closed and a picture of Jesus was placed in the middle, but of course it was covered by the Turks and the only thing left is the original charcoal outline of the Jesus that was painted.
[You can see the center has been ruined. theres a blue ring and a ring of Ivy then there are 4 angles, three are visable.]
[Wider view of the dome. The darder ring is a view of 'heaven'. They were large building with peacocks on them. There were saints painted on all of them. there were originaly 16 but only 8 have survived over the years. You couldn't see them that great because of all of the scaffolding]
Over the doors there were mosaics made with real stones and gold and silver. They were gorgeous. The peacock is apparently a religious symbol [never knew that] symbolizing heaven. The Turks left these because they were just simply designes. The cracks you see is from the Earthquake the happened.
The Rotunda was surprisingly small. The walls were 6 meters thick [that’s about 18 feet thick!]. The Romans [who build the Rotunda] thought it would be a weak structure since it was round, so they build the walls extra thick. The Rotunda has no religious purpose today but the Greeks do hold a church service there sometimes.
Next we walked, in the wind and the rain [ewww], to the Byzantine Museum which is a continuation to the last museum we went to.
We saw a lot of byzantine pottery. They only drew designes and they used a lot of earth tones.
Around this time they started making print copies. They did this by taking a piece of metal, scratching the picture into it. then placing the ink on the metal and trasfereing it to a black piece of paper. Some of the prints were really large. There was so much happening in each picture. They were amazing.
They had a room full of just Icons. There were many of Mary and Jesus, this one was one of my favorites.
They had a lot of beautiful class vases. Beautiful colors and designs.
More mosaics. During this time they started puting mosaics on the walls and ceilings of thir homes so they used gold and silver and real gems.
Beautiful bracelet, its real gold! Yes please :). you can buy replicas I hear.
Hand painted book. Its hard to believe that, at one time, people had to write out all of the books, like the Bible! That would take a very long time. And all of the books were hand painted too.
A silver box with scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
This is the Ambo. Its like a pulpit that the priest delivered his message from. This is an elaborate one, not all were like this one. It was of course built from marble and it was mostly reconstructed but it was still beautiful.
These were some of the highlights. I have many more pictures from these museums. I will have to but a slideshow together to show everyone. But Britney took 419 pictures in the museum and thats just a lot to put on here =).
[cross landscaped into the bushes]
[fountain outside the Rotonda]
It was built originally as a Pagan Church. Then when Christianity became legal it was converted into a Christian church. Then the Turks took over the region and made it into a mosque and since they don’t believe it icons they covered and ruined much of the art work that was designed by the Christians and the Pagans. During the time of the Pagan religion there was an opening in the middle of the dome for the smoke to escape.
So there was a man-hole cover below the hole so when it rained the water could escape. When it was converted into a Christian church the hole was closed and a picture of Jesus was placed in the middle, but of course it was covered by the Turks and the only thing left is the original charcoal outline of the Jesus that was painted.
[You can see the center has been ruined. theres a blue ring and a ring of Ivy then there are 4 angles, three are visable.]
[Wider view of the dome. The darder ring is a view of 'heaven'. They were large building with peacocks on them. There were saints painted on all of them. there were originaly 16 but only 8 have survived over the years. You couldn't see them that great because of all of the scaffolding]
Over the doors there were mosaics made with real stones and gold and silver. They were gorgeous. The peacock is apparently a religious symbol [never knew that] symbolizing heaven. The Turks left these because they were just simply designes. The cracks you see is from the Earthquake the happened.
The Rotunda was surprisingly small. The walls were 6 meters thick [that’s about 18 feet thick!]. The Romans [who build the Rotunda] thought it would be a weak structure since it was round, so they build the walls extra thick. The Rotunda has no religious purpose today but the Greeks do hold a church service there sometimes.
Next we walked, in the wind and the rain [ewww], to the Byzantine Museum which is a continuation to the last museum we went to.
We saw a lot of byzantine pottery. They only drew designes and they used a lot of earth tones.
Around this time they started making print copies. They did this by taking a piece of metal, scratching the picture into it. then placing the ink on the metal and trasfereing it to a black piece of paper. Some of the prints were really large. There was so much happening in each picture. They were amazing.
They had a room full of just Icons. There were many of Mary and Jesus, this one was one of my favorites.
They had a lot of beautiful class vases. Beautiful colors and designs.
More mosaics. During this time they started puting mosaics on the walls and ceilings of thir homes so they used gold and silver and real gems.
Beautiful bracelet, its real gold! Yes please :). you can buy replicas I hear.
Hand painted book. Its hard to believe that, at one time, people had to write out all of the books, like the Bible! That would take a very long time. And all of the books were hand painted too.
A silver box with scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
This is the Ambo. Its like a pulpit that the priest delivered his message from. This is an elaborate one, not all were like this one. It was of course built from marble and it was mostly reconstructed but it was still beautiful.
These were some of the highlights. I have many more pictures from these museums. I will have to but a slideshow together to show everyone. But Britney took 419 pictures in the museum and thats just a lot to put on here =). Anyways I'm just getting really excited for Spring Break! Its three weeks away. Next week I have midterms...EWWW! but then Next weekend [the 3rd-5th] we are going on a school trip to Athens. PARTHENON! I'm really looking forward to it. This next weekend is my last free weekend in Thessaloniki. We have something planned every weekend after that until my last weekend here! so I will be pretty busy soon with many stories and pictures to share with you!
More to come!
Love,
Sarah
Sarah
