Hagia Aikaterine

Department Archive
Collection Byzantine Research Fund
Reference No. BRF/01/01/07/149
Level Item
Place Hagia Aikaterine
Thessalonike
Dates 1908?
Donor/Creator Harvey, Mr William
Scope and Content Longitudinal section. This is a preliminary drawing. It is entitled:'Mosque of Yacoub Pasha'. It is labelled: 'Long Section Looking North'. Further annotation in pencil survives. The drawing is signed (W. Harvey) in the bottom right-hand corner.
Further information Almost nothing is known about the five-domed four-columned cross-in-square church of Hagia Aikaterine in Thessalonike. However, although the date of its construction remains undetermined, plan and design suggest the last years of the 13th c. The articulation of the narthex through blind niches and open arcades, the rich decoration of lozenges, crosses, triangles and grille work as well as the interspersing of the brickwork mainly in the colonnettes of the drums with white stone strongly recall the texture of the walling in the contemporary Hagioi Apostoloi church which is of the same dimensions and architectural type. The marble cornice which envelopes the monument is reminiscent of similar decorative features in Constantinopolitan architecture, mainly of the later period such as the Palaiologan Fenari Isa Cami. The interior walls were covered with high quality frescoes which are now lost.