Thessaloniki Rotunda — Byzantine Interior
142.60 £
The Rotunda of Galerius in Thessaloniki — the 4th-century Roman structure converted to a Byzantine church visible in its current form as a bare brick interior, the remaining golden mosaic tesserae of the original Byzantine decoration visible on the curved walls.
Description
The Rotunda of Thessaloniki is one of the oldest standing Roman monuments still visible in Greece — built by the emperor Galerius as a mausoleum around 306 CE, converted to a Christian church in the 4th century, and subsequently a mosque during the Ottoman period. Its current form — a stripped brick interior with fragmentary Byzantine golden mosaic tesserae surviving on the curved wall surfaces — communicates 1,700 years of conversion and re-use in a single layered space. This image was made in the Rotunda’s interior during visiting hours, looking from the floor to the dome’s apex: the 24-metre diameter brick interior rises to the oculus 30 metres above, the golden mosaic fragments visible in their niches on the curved walls catching the diffuse natural light from the central opening. Shot on a 14mm ultra-wide at f/8, the full dome height and the curved wall fragments are preserved in the upward-looking frame.
