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Ephesos (Byzantium), Bishop's Palace

Συγγραφή : Puelz Andreas (11/11/2003)

Για παραπομπή: Puelz Andreas, "Ephesos (Byzantium), Bishop's Palace", 2003,
Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=4365>
Ephesos (Byzantium), Bishop's Palace (6/6/2011 v.1) Έφεσος (Βυζάντιο), Επισκοπικό μέγαρο (28/7/2010 v.1) 
 

1. Introduction

The so-called Episcopium is a complex with a peristyle court surrounded by rooms (one is apsed), a bath, a latrine and other rooms, which is dated to the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th c. AD (according to St. Karwiese around 500 AD). Presumably the palace was abandoned in the 7th c. AD (654/655: attacks by the Arabs) when the bishop moved to Hagios Theologos (Ayasoluk-Selçuk).1

The monument is part of the episcopal complex of the city, which included the palace, the Church of Virgin Mary, an atrium and a baptistery. It is located in the lower city, nearby the harbour of Ephesus, and it is supposed to be the seat of the Ephesian bishop in Late Antiquity.

2. Architectural description

The bishop’s palace lies in the free space between the supposed palace of the Byzantine governor in the east and the Council Church (Church of Virgin Mary) in the west. The Halls of Verulanus (Xystoi) are located to the south of the complex. In the north there are the ruins of the Roman Olympieion.

The monument was built into the eastern part of the southern stoa of the temenos of the Olympieion (Temple of the Emperor Hadrian). Due to the archaeological situation (only a part of the complex has been excavated) only a few facts are known:

The complex had an extension of about 140 m (from the apse of the church to the end of the apsed room in the east of the peristyle). The floor space of the building in total comprised approximately 4.200 m². The centre of the building is situated in the eastern part of the complex. It is characterized by an open peristyle court, the courtyard (14 by 8.5 m) was marble paved and encircled by 4 x 6 columns. The colonnades (about 2-2.5 m) gave access to quite a number of different rooms (25 rooms, total groundplan: 1.250 m²).2

One of these is an apsed hall (presumably it is a part of the eastern chalcidicum of the imperial stoa) on the eastern side of the court. Perhaps this room can be interpreted as a representative audience or reception hall (maybe of the Ephesian archbishop).3

Likewise also the partly excavated unit of rooms directly in the east of the apse of the basilica was part of part of the episcopal palace: these rooms can be interpreted as a bath with a large rectangular hall (18.5 by 7.5 m). Herein a marble-lined pool (frigidarium) in the southern apse was discovered. But also a caldarium and a latrine could be certified.4

Due to lacking excavation results nothing is known about the area in the space between the peristyle-unit and the bath.

Judging from the proximity to the episcopal church and the floor plan, i.e. the shape of the individual rooms (especially the apsed hall), the complex possibly could be seen as a bishop’s palace with an enclosed bath. But there are no definite indications which could back up such an interpretation.

Even minor objects, such as a leaden ampoule, a bronze thymiaterion (incense burner) etc. can only indicate the Christian character of the complex5 but they do not offer any arguments for the function. Thus the interpretation as episcopium can only be regarded as a hypothesis.

The supposed bishop’s palace cannot be quoted as a typical example for an episcopium because the floor plan and the disposition of the rooms were directly affected by the shape of the imperial stoa. By the way a typical floor plan for a bishop’s palace does not exist.6

A lot of marble spolia of other buildings were reused for the furnishing and the decoration of the complex.

3. Construction

The palace is made of marble, bricks and quarrystones. Quite a number of walls are raised in opus mixtum-technique whereas opus incertum can be proved only in some cases. The complex was built up by using the Roman foot of about 30 cm as a unit of measurement7. There are neither literal nor archaeological indications which give proof to a second floor.8

4. History

The chronology of the building has not yet been determined. The first excavators proposed the 4th c. AD. Nowadays, however, due to the stratigraphic and numismatic findings St. Karwiese suggests the end of the 5th c. AD.9

Palladius10 reports an event which took place in the last years of the 4th c. AD in Ephesus: the local bishop Antoninos was said to have taken some columns of the adjacent church to put them in his triclinum. And he also was accused of having used marble from the entrance of the baptistery to decorate his bath. For these offences the bishop was deposed.

Unfortunately we cannot be sure to say if these occurrences took place in this complex, as the dating as well as the function have not yet been determined.

Excavations took place in 1904-1907, 1912-1913 (F. Knoll), 1929 (J. Keil), 1984-1986 and 1991-1994 (St. Karwiese)

The monument is part of the excavation area and accessible to visitors.

1. Karwiese, St., Die Marienkirche in Ephesos. Erster vorläufiger Grabungsbericht 1984-1986 (DenkschrWien 200, Wien 1989), pp. 26, 45; Foss, C., Ephesus after Antiquity. A late antique, Byzantine and Turkish City (Cambridge et al. 1979), p. 105.

2. Karwiese, St., Die Marienkirche in Ephesos. Erster vorläufiger Grabungsbericht 1984-1986 (DenkschrWien 200, Wien 1989), p. 21.

3. Vetters, H., “Ephesos. Vorläufiger Grabungsbericht 1986/87”, Archäologische Anzeiger 125 (1988), p. 92.

4. Formerly the bath-unit was interpreted as episcopium. Cf. Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst 2 (1971) col. 346, s.v. Episkopion (D. I. Pallas).

5. Vetters, H., “Ephesos. Vorläufiger Grabungsbericht 1986/87”, Archäologische Anzeiger 125 (1988), p. 93; Karwiese St., “The Church of Mary and the Temple of Hadrian Olympios”, in Koester, H. (ed.), Ephesos. Metropolis Asia. An Interdiciplinary Approach to its Archaeology, Religion and Culture (Harvard Theological Studies 41, Harvard 1995), p. 317.

6. Müller-Wiener, W., “Bischofsresidenzen des 4.-7. Jhs. im östlichen Mittelmeerraum”, Akten des 11. Internationalen Kongresses für Christliche Archäologie 1986 (Studi di Antichità Cristiana 41, Rom 1989), pp. 655 and 673.

7. Karwiese, St., Die Marienkirche in Ephesos. Erster vorläufiger Grabungsbericht 1984-1986 (DenkschrWien 200, Wien 1989), p. 21.

8. Cf. Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst 2 (1971), col. 347, s.v. Episkopion (D. I. Pallas).

9. Karwiese St., “The Church of Mary and the Temple of Hadrian Olympios”, in Koester, H. (ed.), Ephesos. Metropolis Asia. An Interdiciplinary Approach to its Archaeology, Religion and Culture (Harvard Theological Studies 41, Harvard 1995), p. 318. The excavated parts of the complex will be published together with the Church of St. Mary (in preparation).

10. Palladius, Dialogus de vita S. Joanni Chrysostomi 13, 150-175. Cf. Harreither, R., “Die Synoden von Ephesos”, Mitteilungen zur christlichen Archäologie 8 (2002), p. 81.
     
 
 
 
 
 

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