1. Topography

The Church of St. Philip is situated to the east of the city of Trebizond, outside the walls, in the southwestern corner of the harbour Daphnus between Mount Mithrion and the sea, within a distance of about 1.2 km from the Church of St. Eugenios.

2. Historical Background

There is little information provided by texts and inscriptions about the church.¹ The tradition that it was built by Anna, the daughter of the emperor of Trebizond Alexios III (1349-1390) and wife of Ioannes Mourouzes, who was a official thesaurophylax (treasurer), is ungrounded.²

2.1. Uses of the Church

In 1461, after Trebizond was captured and the first metropolitan church of Chrysokephalos was transformed into the main Muslim mosque of the city, the Church of St. Philip became the second metropolitan church. However, after 1665 it was transformed into a masgid as well and was replaced by the Church of St. Gregory of Nyssa, which became the third and last metropolitan church of the city.³

It was in 1659 that the Patriarch of Jerusalem Paisios and the deacon, and subsequent Patriarch of Jerusalem, Dositheos held a Divine Liturgy here.⁴ Plunders and pillages by the Turks in 1665 are reported in a versed account of the capture of the Diocese of Trebizond, preserved in a codex of the monastery of St. John Prodromos Vazelon in the Black Sea. However, Dositheos of Jerusalem reports that the plunder took place several years later, in 1674. The big difference between the two dates reported by the written sources is explained by metropolitan Chrysanthos,⁵ given that lasting trials for the proprietary title of the church were held in Trebizond and Constantinople after the first plunder and possibly until 1674, when the church was awarded to the Turks. The church has been a masgid ever since.

2.2. Chronology and Building Stages

According to A.Bryer and D.Winfield, the church was built in three stages.⁶ The early stage included the square (about 4.5 m wide) domed main church with one arch (five external sides and a semicircular interior) to the east and a narrow compartment to the west, somehow larger than that of the Church of Panagia Evangelistria. Because this first church was connected, because of its similarity to the Church of Panagia in Tripolis, to John II Grand Komnenos and his wife Eudokia (1282-1301), it is believed to have been built in the last twenty years of the 13th century. In the second stage, the main church was elongated by adding a large rectangular domed space to the west. The addition, visible in the different masonry, probably dates after the fall of Trebizond to the Turks (1461),⁷ when the church became the second metropolitan church after Chrysokephalos, which was transformed into the main Muslim mosque. In the last stage, when the Church of St. Philip was also transformed into a mosque (after 1665), a largest addition was made to the north.⁸ In the same period, along with the addition of the minaret, the three large windows of the north side were opened.⁹

3. Description of the Monument

3.1. Architectural Design (type, form, style, decorations)

It belongs to the architectural type of the one-aisledbasilica with a dome, an apse (pentagonal on the exterior and a semicircular on th interior) and a narrow narthex.¹⁰ Along with two other churches – the Church of Archangel Michael in Platana and the Church of Panagia in Tripolis – it forms a group¹¹ with common characteristics: common dimensions, a square main ground plan, the narthex, the dome with the high tympanum covering the main church, the cross roughly formed on the ground plan, the sole apse lighted by three windows and, up to a certain level, the relief decoration. The Churches of Panagia Evangelistria and St. Gregory of Nyssa in Trebizond could be included in the same group. Because John II Grand Komnenos and his wife Eudokia 1282-1301) are considered the founders of the Church of Panagia in Tripolis, it is assumed that the rest of the churches were also built in the same period, that is, the last two decades of the 13th century. The way the west addition to the church is shaped is of particular interest, for the entrance and the arch are elements reminiscent of the Roman rather than the Byzantine architecture.¹²

3.2. Decorations

Nothing is known about the wall paintings of the church, since its walls, as it happened with most churches of the city after the fall of Trebizond to the Turks, were covered with plaster.¹³ On the other hand, we know more of the relief decoration. The well-built arch is adorned with arch moldings, and the horizontal line of the twelve-sided tympanum of the dome is adorned with a ropework decoration. Above the external side of the north entrance to the narthex of the original church, which is today surrounded by the later porch, there is a curious acanthus molding. In the west addition there are built-in reliefs, while the southern capital of the west door is adorned with the typical Muslim stalactite decoration,¹⁴ which probably replaced an earlier one, and the northern capital – according to Τalbot Rice¹⁵ – is adorned with single-headed eagles with elevated wings. According to Bryer – Winfield,¹⁶ who visited the monument, this capital is impossible to be reconstructed in detail. The decoration of the northern capital reminds of the eagle of the southern stoa in the Church of Hagia Sophia.¹⁷ The original church floor, today covered with a wooden floor, may have been covered with an opus sectile, as it happens in the Churches of Chrysokephalos and St. Eugenios.¹⁸

3.3. Construction's presentation

The dome covering the main church has its hight equal with its diameter and stands on four arches. The north and the south arch are connected with the walls, while the apse starts under the eastern arch. There is an arch interpolated to the west. While in other churches there is space saved between the pillars of the dome and the walls so that the thrust from the dome could be eliminated, this space has been largely disappeared here. The twelve-sided tympanum of the dome has an equal number of windows.