L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO
### Portraits of Past Editors: Nicola Zanchini, Giuseppe Bastia, Augusto Baviera
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It was built in 456 by Bishop Abramo and another in 513 under Bishop Samuele, as two inscriptions inform us. Virán Şahr still preserves the ruins of the only Paleo-Christian monument in the region. This was a large round church having within the first outer circular enclosure and, concentric with it, a second enclosure formed by eight enormous pillars marking the angles of an octagon. Along two perpendicular axes there were three square porticoes facing the three entrance doors to the church, and on the fourth side a long paved street. It is not known whether the central octagon was covered by a pyramidal roof or by a dome.
At Edessa there was preserved a miraculous image of Christ, copies of which, also widespread in the West, are of great importance for the history of the iconography of the Messiah.
Bibl.: G. B. Ramusio, *Delle navigationi et viaggi*, II, Venezia 1583, fol. 78v; E. Renan, *Deux monuments épigraphiques d’Edesse*, in *Journal asiatique*, 8th series, 1 (1583), pp. 246–51; L. Hallier, *Untersuchungen über die Edessenische Chronik*, Leipzig 1893; A. Baumstark, *Vorjustinianische kirchliche Bauten in Edessa*, in *Oriens christianus*, 4 (1904), pp. 164–83; H. Pognon, *Inscriptions sémitiques de la Syrie, de la Mésopotamie et de la région de Mossoul*, Paris 1907, nos. 2–12, 36–39, 44–50, 55–58, 87–90, 118; A. Rücker, *Aus der Geschichte der jacobitischen Kirche von Edessa*, in *Oriens Christianus*, 32 (1935), p. 124 sq.; A. Vasilev, *The Life of St. Theodore of Edessa*, in *Byzantion*, 16 (1942–43), pp. 179–80; A. Grabar, *Le témoignage d’un hymne syriaque sur l’architecture de la cathédrale d’Édesse au VIe siècle et sur la symbolique de l’édifice chrétien*, in *Cahiers archéologiques*, 2 (1947), pp. 41–67; A. Dupont-Sommer, *Une hymne syriaque sur la cathédrale d’Édesse*, ibid., pp. 29–30. On Virán Şahr: Oppenheim-Lucas, *Inschriften aus Syrien*, in *Byzantinische Zeitschrift*, 1905, nos. 92–94; J. Strzygowski, *Kleinasien ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte*, Leipzig 1903, pp. 96–110. Ugo Monneret de Villard.
