es.[248]
(Fig. 49.)

The three apses at the east end are of equal height. The side ones are
much worn but were apparently plain. The centre apse is in three stories
with alternately flat and circular niches in each side. It is crowned by
a machicolated cornice similar to that on the east end of S. Theodosia.

The general composition, as will be seen from the description, arises
very directly from the internal arrangements of the chapel and is
extremely satisfactory. The ranges of arches, varying in a manner at
first irregular, but presently seen to be perfectly symmetrical, give a
rhythmic swing to the design. The walls are now heavily plastered and
the effect of the horizontal bands of brick and stone is lost; but even
in its present state the building is a very delightful example of
Byzantine external architecture.

Evidently the foundress of the chapel wished the monument she reared to
her husband's memory to be as beautiful both within and without as the
taste and skill of the times could make it.

[Illustration: PLATE XLII.
S. MARY PAMMAKARISTOS. SOUTH SIDE OF THE PARECCLESION.
_To face page 156._]

What information we have in regard to the chapel is little, but clear
and definite, resting as it does on the authority of the two epitaphs
which the poet Philes composed to be inscribed on the interior and
exterior walls of the building. One of the epitaphs, if ever placed in
position, has been destroyed or lies concealed under Turkish plaster. Of
the other only fragments remain, forming part of the scheme of
decoration which adorns the south wall of the chapel. But fortunately
the complete text of both epitaphs is preserved in the extant writings
of their author, and affords all the information they were meant to
record. The chapel was dedicated to Christ as the Logos[249] and was
built after the death of the protostrator by his wife Maria, or Martha
in religion, for a mausoleum in which to place his tomb.[250] As the
protostrator died about 1315, the chapel was erected soon after that
date. An interesting incident occurred in this chapel soon after the
Turkish conquest. One day when the Sultan was riding through his newly
acquired capital he came to the Pammakaristos, and upon being informed
that it was the church assigned to the Patriarch Gennadius, alighted to
honour the prelate with a visit. The meeting took place in this
parecclesion, and the conversation, of which a summary account was
afterwards se