Page:The travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch - Volume I.djvu/56

28 We came now to the fifth Church, called after Saint Demetrius. Upon the wall, round the door, is painted Πᾶσα πνοὴ; that is, "Praise the Lord from the heavens, all ye creatures, beasts and firmament, cold and snow, &c."

The sixth Church we came to is dedicated to Our Lady, and is near the Walls. The seventh is Saint John the Baptist's, and contains an Ἁγίασμα. The eighth is the Church of Saint Nicholas. The ninth, of Saint John Chrysostom. All are built of wood, and roofed over; and are adorned with the Συμϐόλαια, and Πολυέλεος, in letters of gold, inside and out.

Then we viewed the Church of the Franks, which has been burnt; which equalled Saint Sophia, in height and size, and form and structure: and was adorned, inside and out, with mosaic paintings and gildings of the Dominical Feasts. Over the door, on the wall, is a painting, in mosaic, of the Assumption of Our Lady. All the inscriptions are in the Frank language. Within it, and with its materials, how many a small church might be built! But it is ruined and deserted, and altogether in the hands of the Franks.

 

the eve of Wednesday, the tenth of Teshrin the second, there happened a great fire in Constantinople, which lasted till the eve of Thursday, and burnt the very heart of the city; I mean its Markets and Bezistans (Cloth Halls); spreading on till it reached the District of Kum Capi, the extreme neighbourhood of the Odoun Charshi, or Wood Market; and the Maidan Catir Ghilman, or the Place of the Muleteers. There were burnt, as was computed, about forty, I do not know whether fifty, thousand shops, fifteen thousand large and small private houses, three hundred bakers' ovens, a number of Hammams or Baths, and two-and-thirty Khans or Caravansaries. The Khan Elyusra, or Khan of Paradise, was destroyed, with every thing in it; as was also the Khan Piri Pasha. The Baltajis (Pioneers) and the Bostanjis (Guards of the Seraglio) were unequal to the task of laying waste the places around, until they called out the populace to their aid. The fire whirled about, from spot to spot, like a bird on the wing. Cemeteries, and Fi-Sabil-Allah's, or Charitable Edifices, built of marble, were destroyed in great numbers; and even the tops of the minarets were consumed. We knew where, yesterday, were market-houses and khans and populous mansions; and in this morning's dawn it shewed a desert land,