The Church of St. John the Baptist in Trullo.

CHURCH OF ST. JOHN IN TRULLO

Returning to Fethiye Caddesi we follow it in the same direction for a short distance and then take the first turning on the right. We there find ourselves face to face with a charming little Byzantine church which has recently been restored. It is called Ahmet Paşa Mescidi and has been identified with almost virtual certainty as the Church of St. John the Baptist in Trullo. Nothing whatever is known of the history of the church in Byzantine times. Three years after the Conquest, in 1456, when Gennadius transferred the Patriarchate to the Pammakaristos, he turned out the nuns there ensconce gave them this church instead. Here they seem to have remained until about 1586, when the church was converted into a mosque by Hirami Ahmet Paşa, from whom it takes its Turkish name. The tiny building was a characteristic example of the four-column type of church with a narthex and three semicircular apses, evidently of

the eleventh or twelfth century. Until a few years ago it was ruined and dilapidated, but still showed signs of frescoes under its faded and blotched whitewash. The original four columns, long since purloined, have since been replaced with poor columns and awkward capitals, and the restored brickwork is also wrong.