DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45603#0029
Babiska
169
The history of the building of this church, and the group of buildings about it,
so far as it is to be read in the inscriptions found within the group, is as follows.
In the year A.D. 390, M. Kyris, a presbyter, made the lintel1 of the doorway at M.
Eleven years later, in 401 A.D., Markianos Kyris, evidently the same man as the
M. Kyris of the former inscription, is mentioned as architect in an inscription 3 of the
easternmost of the two south portals (N) of the church. This inscription I take to be
the dedicatory inscription of the church. Eusebis, a deacon, set up the inscription.
This Kyris was apparently both presbyter and architect, not a strange combination of
offices, and may be identical with Kyros, the architect of the church at Kasr il-Benat3
which has every appearance of having been designed by the same hand: and he was
probably also the same as the architect Kyros4 who was architect of the church of
St. Paul and Moses5 at Dar Kita, a building of the same style, dated 418 A.D. A
church to be classed in every respect with these, is the East Church at Ksedjbeh, al-
ready described on page 159. The architect of this church was Kyrillas, its date
414 A.D. It would seem as if this name of the architect might be taken as a dimi-
3LL 1 1U IN ‘■/A.-JD’ RESTORED-
CHVDCHofSt5EPGIVS- BABISKA dATE.:609-610AD-
Ill. 179.
nutive form of Kyris or Kyros. In 480, under Moses a presbyter, the was
completed. The inscription 6 which gives this information is that upon the lintel of the
misplaced doorway (P) on the plan. Mr. Prentice translated the Greek word as facade,
and I have no doubt that a new facade was added to the church in 480 A.D. This
facade was probably again rebuilt when the doorway was removed to its present position.
Church of St. Sergius. Date: 609-10 A.D. This latest of all the churches erected
in Northern Syria is not important architecturally. It is of medium size for the region,
had a nave of four bays, a rectangular presbyterium with square side chambers, and,
consequently, a right-lined plan (Ill. 179). The west wall is preserved in one story
with an interesting portal which bears the date7; the east wall is partly preserved,
showing one of the windows of the sanctuary, the pier on the south side of the chancel
arch is still standing with its cap and two or three of the voussoirs of the great arch
2 Div. Ill insc. 1096.
8 Div. Ill, insc. 1099.
3 Div. Ill, insc. 1076.
1 Div. Ill, insc. 1100.
4 II, B. 5.
169
The history of the building of this church, and the group of buildings about it,
so far as it is to be read in the inscriptions found within the group, is as follows.
In the year A.D. 390, M. Kyris, a presbyter, made the lintel1 of the doorway at M.
Eleven years later, in 401 A.D., Markianos Kyris, evidently the same man as the
M. Kyris of the former inscription, is mentioned as architect in an inscription 3 of the
easternmost of the two south portals (N) of the church. This inscription I take to be
the dedicatory inscription of the church. Eusebis, a deacon, set up the inscription.
This Kyris was apparently both presbyter and architect, not a strange combination of
offices, and may be identical with Kyros, the architect of the church at Kasr il-Benat3
which has every appearance of having been designed by the same hand: and he was
probably also the same as the architect Kyros4 who was architect of the church of
St. Paul and Moses5 at Dar Kita, a building of the same style, dated 418 A.D. A
church to be classed in every respect with these, is the East Church at Ksedjbeh, al-
ready described on page 159. The architect of this church was Kyrillas, its date
414 A.D. It would seem as if this name of the architect might be taken as a dimi-
3LL 1 1U IN ‘■/A.-JD’ RESTORED-
CHVDCHofSt5EPGIVS- BABISKA dATE.:609-610AD-
Ill. 179.
nutive form of Kyris or Kyros. In 480, under Moses a presbyter, the was
completed. The inscription 6 which gives this information is that upon the lintel of the
misplaced doorway (P) on the plan. Mr. Prentice translated the Greek word as facade,
and I have no doubt that a new facade was added to the church in 480 A.D. This
facade was probably again rebuilt when the doorway was removed to its present position.
Church of St. Sergius. Date: 609-10 A.D. This latest of all the churches erected
in Northern Syria is not important architecturally. It is of medium size for the region,
had a nave of four bays, a rectangular presbyterium with square side chambers, and,
consequently, a right-lined plan (Ill. 179). The west wall is preserved in one story
with an interesting portal which bears the date7; the east wall is partly preserved,
showing one of the windows of the sanctuary, the pier on the south side of the chancel
arch is still standing with its cap and two or three of the voussoirs of the great arch
2 Div. Ill insc. 1096.
8 Div. Ill, insc. 1099.
3 Div. Ill, insc. 1076.
1 Div. Ill, insc. 1100.
4 II, B. 5.