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Столичные мастера в Юго-Западной Анатолии начала Х века (Маставра и Исламкёй)?
The essay tries to reconstruct the activity
of a Constantinopolitan building crew in south-west Anatolia
in the early 10th century. The Cathedral of Mastaura
(Dere Agzi, Lycia, and the church in Islamköy in Pisidia
(near Byzantine Agrai), probably constructed due to the creation
of new Episcopal centres in the late 9th century, were built at
the same time and with the same techniques and decoration,
albeit using a different scale, with the participation of master
builders from Constantinople. It is very likely that in both
cases this is the work of a single building crew that could,
of course, change according to requirements: in the large-scale
Cathedral of Mastaura, local builders had to join
the Constantinopolitan masters. Moreover, it is likely
that the builders of the Panagia church in the monastery
of Constantine Lips (907 or 908) came from Constantinople
to Mastaura and Islamköy, bringing some elements
of the new architectural fashion of the capital (tetraconch
pastophoria, oeil de boeuf windows/niches), which began its
‘expansion’ to south-east Anatolia. It is possible that
the metropolitan masters moved further east in the empire,
to Cappadocian Siricha, where the pilgrimage Church
of the Holy Cross is mentioned in 904, under Leo VI. During
his reign the katholikon of the Lips monastery was built
and probably Eski Imaret Camii, the Cathedral of Mastaura
and the church in Islamköy.