Tag Archives: mosaic
Visiting Rome’s Santa Maria in Trastevere
We didn’t mean to visit Santa Maria, or Our Lady in Trastevere, when we did; we were just looking for good food in the Trastevere (“across the Tiber”) neighborhood. Eventually we would have found our way to it, but hungry as we were when we walked by, I simply couldn’t help myself. I had to go in.
Byzantine Istanbul V: Church of the Holy Savior in Chora
So if it’s just a little Byzantine church, what’s the big deal? That will become abundantly clear inside, when you’re greeted by wondrous art: the kind of art that makes you understand what all the fuss is about art; the kind of art that makes you forget to close your mouth when you stare. The best kind of art.
Byzantine Istanbul Part IV: The Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos
30 mile per hour winds shut down the Golden Horn ferry, so we ended up walking. This might have otherwise been a pleasant walk but for the evil weather, and I know that Michelle particularly didn’t enjoy having to constantly hold her skirt against the wind. Then I compounded the trouble by taking a quick detour through some of the least-welcoming neighborhoods of the city.
Byzantine Istanbul Part II: The Great Palace Mosaics
The museum itself is small, including floor mosaics of about 250 square meters, or about 2700 square feet. But archaeologists estimate that only one-seventh to one-eighth of the floor remains. To put that into perspective, we are talking about nearly half an acre of mosaic flooring. That’s something like an area from the 50 yard line to the goal line on an American football field. Archaeologists have suggested that it may have taken 80 million tesserae, the small, square tiles of limestone, glass, and ceramic that make up the mosaics.
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