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New evidence for the Alkazar’ area from the Thessaloniki metro construction works

• Μαρκή, Ευτέρπη
• Γιατρουδάκη, Εύα
• Τσόκας, Γρηγόρης
• Τσούρλος, Παναγιώτης

The area around Alkazar, as Thessalonians call the Hamza Bey Tzami, has always been an important one for Thessaloniki, due to its proximity to the city’s main western entrance, the Golden Gate, and its Agora. During the Byzantine period, it probably belonged to Omphalos district, a name owed to the corruption of its ancient name, Phallos. The sources do not mention Christian churches, apart from some monasteries, in the Omphalos district; however, the column capitals in the courtyard of Hamza Bey Tzami, which are from the colonnade of a basilica, offer evidence for a Christian church in this area from the Early Christian period, a view that has been further supported by geophysical research conducted on behalf of ΑΤΤΙΚΟ METRO by the University of Thessaloniki. This research was carried out with the use of three methods of prospection: ground penetrating radar (GPR), geoelectric tomography, the tomographic method between drill holes. The geophysical research showed that there was an older building, probably a church, in the courtyard area of Hamza Bey Tzami. The colonnade and capitals from the monument’s courtyard, 16 of which definitely come from a nearby Early Christian basilica, support the evidence from geophysical research. Of the 22 column capitals employed for covering the arches and stoas of this courtyard, 13 are Corinthian, and three are two-zoned with eagles. Of the remaining six, five were structur- al-Ottoman, and on another, a column base was employed as a column capital. All surmounted monolithic columns with diameters ranging from 0.36 to 0.41 m. The majority present similarities of construction and are datable to the late 5th and 6th centuries.In our effort to identify the church with some monument known from the sources that the column capitals may come from, we relied on the Acts of Mt. Athos, which mention a small monastery, that of the Forty Martyrs, as being in the Omphalos district in the 15th century (1420), near the mid-point of the avenue (modern Egnatia Street). On the basis of this meager information, we should like to express the working hypothesis that the katholikon of the Monastery of the Forty Martyrs may be connected with the building identified through geophysical prospection.In 1467, Hafsa Hatun, the daughter of Sarabdar Hamza Bey, built the Hamza Bey Tzami as a Mescid (a sacred precinct without minaret) on the site of the courtyard of the Byzantine monastery that had fallen into ruins. During the reign of the Sultan Mehmet II (1455-1459), the entire area surrounding the main precinct was re-designed and re-modeled, when Bez- esteni, Thessaloniki’s lead-covered marketplace fortextiles and silver and gold, was re-built across from the Hamza Bey Tzami. During the same period, the Caravansarai was built north of it, where Thessaloiki s City Hall currently operates. The ruins of this monumental structure were found in 1926, as contemporary newspapers reported, but its architectural form was preserved in a print by Texier-Pullan. Built by Koca Mustafa Paça, the Beylerbey of Roumeli between 1498 and 1505, the Caravansaray was an example of his beneficence, since visitors to the city could stay there without charge.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία

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