ISAURIA. — It is the westernmost province of the patriarchate of Antioch, and in the ecclesiastical geography of the Byzantine era it comprises only a part of the earlier Roman province, roughly the valleys of the Lamos and the Kalykandos and the mountainous massif between the latter and the sea. Its archaeological exploration is incomplete. The metropolis of I. is Seleucia, near which arose the most important sanctuary dedicated to the cult of St. Thecla, which had supplanted that of the demon Sarpedon and of the goddess Athena, consisting of a martyrium and monasteries enclosed within a fortified wall for protection against brigand attacks. The sanctuary attracted a very great number of pilgrims from every region. The miracles of St. Thecla also recall a chapel of the Saint at Selinunte, built on an acropolis and which often defended the city against enemy attacks: another monastery of St. Thecla, known through an inscription, existed at Diocesarea, and a sanctuary at Dalisandos which was a place of pilgrimage almost as famous as the one near Seleucia. The mountainous character of the region protected the Christian communities in the first centuries of the Muslim invasion, so that representatives of the ancient bishoprics still appear in part at the Seventh Council, and George of Cyprus, the Nea Tactica and the Notitia Antiochena give as many as eight names of episcopal sees.
The most important group of monuments of I. is that of the sanctuary of St. Thecla near Seleucia, in the locality today called Meriamilk: a large basilica with three naves divided by columns, probably built in the second half of the 5th century and remodeled later; a grotto beneath it transformed into a church; a domed basilica over the central nave, probably a foundation of the emperor Zeno (574-91); and a little farther off the "North church". Of the greatest importance is this domed basilica, which documents a new conception of architectural space in the evolution of basilical forms. In Seleucia an ancient Roman temple had been transformed into a church by the substitution of an apse for one of the shorter sides. The basilica of St. Thecla is notable not only for its great dimensions, but principally because the two rooms flanking the apse in the Syrian manner are each provided with an apse, according to a structure characteristic of north-central Syria (cathedral of Il-Änderin, martyrion and basilica B of Rusäfah).
At the northern end of the valley of the Kalykandya, near the village of Hoğa Kalessi, rises another very important church, a basilica with three naves of perfect construction in squared stone, of purely Syrian technique (also in the decoration): the central nave is divided into two parts by transverse arches, and over the one in front of the presbytery rises a tower which has on its top story, above the matroneum, corners chamfered with four niche-like squinches carried by columns, similar to those of the rooms flanking the apse of the basilica of St. Sergius at Rusäfah, and to the Red Convent near Sähäg, all monuments of the mid-5th century. Also of clearly Syrian planimetry, with the apse flanked by two rooms, are the large church with matroneum of Gâmbazli and one of Tapureli; whereas a church of Olba and two of Sök Örem (Korassion) instead connect to structures widespread in Cilicia, that is, having a room behind the apse, in the first case likewise provided with two apses. Its liturgical function is unknown. A church of Olba and one of Tapureli have only the diaconicum. All these basilicas with three naves are provided with a narthex, and at Meriamilk both in the domed basilica and in the north church there is also the atrium, proof of the penetration of Hellenistic elements into a region that may be considered the extreme offshoot of Syrian architecture toward the north-west.
Bibliography6 works
Ugo Monneret de Villard