mmakaristos, to command the fine view from that point of the city.
Mordtmann,[332] indeed, maintains that the building to which Phrantzes
refers was the palace at Bogdan Serai, the subsequent residence of the
Moldavian hospodar in Turkish days, and that the church of S. John in
Trullo was not Achmed Pasha Mesjedi, but the church of S. John in Petra
(Kesme Kaya) beside that palace. This opinion, however, is at variance
with the statements of Phrantzes and Gerlach. Furthermore, the
designation 'in Petra' was so distinctive a mark of the church of S.
John near Kesme Kaya, that the church could scarcely have been
recognised under another style.

[Illustration: PLATE LV.
S. JOHN IN TRULLO, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.]

[Illustration: BALABAN MESJEDI (page 265). INTERIOR VIEW.
_To face page 202._]

[Illustration: FIG. 68.]

_Architectural Features_

S. John in Trullo belongs to the ordinary 'four column' type of church
building, and has a narthex. Its three apses are semicircular both
within and without, presenting the only instance in Constantinople of
apses semicircular on the exterior. The central apse projects m. 3
beyond the body of the building, and was lighted by a large but low
window, divided into three lights by two pilasters crowned with carved
capitals (for details see Fig. 68); the diaconicon has been built up to
form the mihrab of the mosque; the prothesis, to the north, has a barrel
vault.

[Illustration: FIG. 69.]

The drum dome is octagonal, with eight ribs and as many windows. It
seems large for the size of the church, and is lower than usual inside.
The windows do not cut into the exterior cornice of the dome. Originally
the dome arches rested on four piers or columns, but these have been
removed in the course of Turkish repairs, and the dome arches are now
supported by beams running across the church, under the impost of the
arches.

The arms of the cross to the north and south have barrel vaults, and
the walls are pierced by triple windows. Two capitals built into the
exterior face of the northern wall, and marked with a cross, were
doubtless the capitals of the shafts which divided the northern window
into three lights. The western arm of the cross is covered by the roof
of the narthex, and lighted by a small round-headed window above it. The
small narthex is in three bays, covered with cross-groined vaults.

It is not probable that the church was converted into a mosque before
1591,