Hieria

Hieria (in Greek variously Ἱερεῖα, Ἱερία, Ἡρία), also known as Heraeum or Heraion (Ἡραῖον), modern Fenerbahçe, was a town of ancient Bithynia and a suburb of Byzantine-era Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey). It is prominent in the city's history as the site of an imperial palace.

The name derives from Heraion akron (Greek: Ἡραῖον ἄκρον, "Cape of Hera"), which was given in antiquity to a small promontory (modern Fener burnu) on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, opposite Chalcedon (modern Kadıköy).^[1] The Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) built a palace here, which included a harbour and a church dedicated to St. Mary.^[1] The palace, which survived at least until 1203, served as a summer residence for a number of Byzantine emperors, including Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) and Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886), who added a chapel dedicated to the Prophet Elijah.^[1] Due to its location on the Asian side of the Bosporus, the palace often served as a reception point for triumphal returns of the Byzantine emperors from campaigns in the East.^[1] The iconoclastic "Council of Hieria" took place in the palace in 754.^[1] Only a few traces of the original palace complex (the harbour breakwater, a cistern and funerary inscriptions) survive.^[1]

Its site is located at Fenerbahçe in Asiatic Turkey.^[2][3]

References

1. Kazhdan 1991, p. 929.
2. Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 53, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
3. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.

Sources

• Kazhdan, Alexander Petrovich, ed. (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York, New York and Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.

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