mosque of
Constantinople, probably belongs to the intermediate period. The similar
small cruciform church of Protaton, Mount Athos, is dated c. 950.' Hence
if Theophanes and his followers are not to clash with these authorities
on architecture, either Kalender Haneh Jamissi is not the church of the
Diaconissa, or it is a reconstruction of the original fabric of that
sanctuary. To restore an old church was not an uncommon practice in
Constantinople, and Kalender Haneh Jamissi has undoubtedly seen changes
in the course of its history. On the other hand, Diehl is of the opinion
that the building cannot be later than the seventh century and may be
earlier.[304]

[Illustration: PLATE XLVII.
(1) S. MARY DIACONISSA. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING NORTH-EAST.
(2) S. MARY DIACONISSA. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING SOUTH-EAST.
_To face page 184._]

_Architectural Features_

The church belongs to the domed-cross type. The central area is
cruciform, with barrel vaults over the arms and a dome on the centre. As
the arms are not filled in with galleries this cruciform plan is very
marked internally. Four small chambers, in two stories, in the arm
angles bring the building to the square form externally. The upper
stories are inaccessible except by ladders, but the supposition that
they ever formed, like the similar stories in the dome piers of S.
Sophia, portions of continuous galleries along the northern, western,
and southern walls of the church is precluded by the character of the
revetment on the walls. In the development of the domed-cross type, the
church stands logically intermediate between the varieties of that type
found respectively in the church of S. Theodosia and in that of SS.
Peter and Mark.

The lower story of the north-western pier is covered with a flat
circular roof resting on four pendentives, while the upper story is open
to the timbers, and rises higher than the roof of the church, as though
it were the base of some kind of tower. It presents no indications of
pendentives or of a start in vaulting. The original eastern wall of the
church has been almost totally torn down and replaced by a straight wall
of Turkish construction. Traces of three apses at that end of the
building can, however, still be discerned; for the points at which the
curve of the central apse started are visible on either side of the
Turkish wall, and the northern apse shows on the exterior. The northern
and southern walls are lighted by large