The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-04-23

| VIII DtCCBIc VI Ayd 0Olld.
Is it to remain place of Moslem wor-
ship, or will that greatest temple
after ST. Peters" be rededicated to
Christian use? So asks e. A. N. Val
entine in Los Angeles Times.
Whatever be the tolerance shown
Constantinople of the future, it is al
most certain the cross will supersede
the crescent on Justinian's splendid
monument to early Christianity. Its
new conservation to the purposes for
which it was reared is a duty owed
the memory of its illustrious founder.
Not even st. Peters outrivals Ava
Sofia in interest It's history is in
separable, not only with Constantine
pie itself, but with Christianity. The
creation of Byzantium as the seat of
the eastern Roman empire by Con-
stantine the Great had a religious as
well as a political motive. Made
convert to the teachings of the Naza-
rene by the 'In hoe signo vinces"
vision, he resolved to establish new
capital in which that faith should have
exclusive sway, and his first act was
TO lay the foundations of the original
basilica of "The Divine Wisdom on
which the present fame was rebuilt by
his descendant, the author of the
"Pandects.' Byzantium was to be
what Rome is today. 1t was through |
this successor of the Caesars and his
Church of Ava Sofa, the See of the
Greek Patriarchs, that Christianity att
tanned her first great triumph over pa
ganism.
Ava Sofia may well be called the |
soul of Constantinople-the heartbeat /
Of it's long histOry-it has figured in |
all its various chapters of vicissitudes, |
its variegated romance, on which rests
an exotic bloom richer than any in
ventions of fancy.
On One of Seven Hills.
The cupola and fianking minarets of
Ava Sofia, familiarized by paintings
the eye in approaching Constantinople
by water. Dawn or sunset hour is the
most favorable moment for that APP
proach. the impressions Of which stir
the pulse of even the most sophisti-
Gated traveller. VisiOned at dawn,
with the city wrapped in light mist,
family touched by bushes of still
hidden sun, the many mosques of
STEAMBOAT appear almost aerial, seem
like vast rose-tinged soap bubbles 4
afioat on the fiimy sea, insubstantial
as the fabric of dream, like the phan-
tasmagoria evoked by hashish-eaters.
Aga Sofia occupies one of the seven
hills of Stamboul, that congested quar-
ter of true Turkeydom, lying on the
site of old Byzantium, on the Asiatic
shore and separated from Galata-
Pera, the cosmopolitan quarter, by the
Golden Horn and from Skutar by the
Of these superb SUBMITS
it has the nearest and most command
ing location. One sees it from almost
every point of Constantinople and its
cnvirons. Yet like most else in the
city, a near view does not enhance
happy impressions. When one has |
gained the square on which it is stu
nIeu IL Is l1O lOHSCl Int a PiSSSN-N
dome of Kubla Kahn. The main Gu
pola has lost both its silvery airiness
and swelling proportions; the irregular ;
mass, guarded by its four minarets, !
ike giant pointed pencils, lacks warmth
IF color and seems confused in design
It's nucleus-the basilica of Justinlan +
struggles, LAGOON fashion, in the !
coils of Mohammedan encumbrance. /
DespoiIed by the Turk. AZ
The Turk has despoiled Ava Sofia e
If all that is not essential to the build a
ng. The heaped treasures of Justin
ans hands that once filled the sanctu-
Try are gone; but there are still the
.ich materials out of which the basil a
ca was constructed. When one passes
through porphyry gates of the court n
ard. ornamented with fountain Il