St. John's Church, Ephesus

The design of Justinian's domed cruciform Basilica of St. John on the hill of Ayasoluk, long an interesting, has now become an urgent question. Partly uncovered and published by Sotiriou in 1922, it was excavated more extensively by the Austrians and at last described and restored by H. Hoermann and edited by Josef Keil, with the aid of a grant from Dumbarton Oaks, in one of the most lavish Austrian volumes on Ephesus to be published to date. The seeming exhaustiveness and accuracy of this book have tempted certain syndicates to rebuild the church for the use of pilgrims to Ephesus, even though, when uncovered, it stood to a general height of merely 10 or 12 feet, about one-sixth of its original height, and even though Keil had set a wiser precedent for its treatment. “Auf grössere Wiederherstellungsarbeiten wurde, abgesehen von der Aufstellung einer Säule, verzichtet, weil solche Wiederaufstellungen erfahrungsgemäss den Anreiz zu schädigenden Umstürzen erwecken” (FE. p. 16).