The Monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites The Younger

The Monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites the Younger is a masonry building with some rock-cut sections, it has a cruciform plant settled on a rectangular measuring 132×160 m. It is encircled by two walls that are parallel to each other, in which currently two entrances, of the original three, are still preserved. The eastern section hosts three adjacent basilicas. The richly ornamented central church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and can be considered as the main church of the site due to its direct relationship with the saint’s column. To the north is another more basic church, probably used by monks, that might have functioned in relationship to a baptistery, freestanding further to the north. To the south is the martyrion-church, containing the remnants of mosaics, which has a plan that can be defined as a basilica, yet is defined by the triconch arrangement at its eastern end. This last church is dedicated to Martha, mother of St. Simeon. In an octagonal courtyard, facing the Holy Trinity Church, the rock-cut base of the pillar on which Simeon lived can still be seen.

The first construction phase lasted ten years from 541 to 551, when the rectangular core, the atrium and the baptistery are erected. However, the martyrion church of St. Martha and the tetraconch located at the southwest corner of the octagon are added after the death of St. Martha in 562. The building complex has been transformed into a monastery by the very beginning of the 11th century, when the external western walls were probably built (https://pbase.com/dosseman/image/141351877).

VIRGINIA SOMELLA