THE BASILICA OF THE STS. SERGIUS AND BACCHUS AT RESAPHA (SYRIA) External views Resapha (also spelled Resafa, or Rasafa), considered by many archaeologists to be the most beautiful place in the Syrian desert, was cited in the Assyrian texts and in the Bible (Isa. 37:12), where Sennacherib boasts to Hezekiah that he has captured it along with other towns. Resapha was an important annex of Palmyra during the first few centuries of the Christian era, under Roman influence. The Euphrates River was the frontier between the Persian Empire and the expanding Empire of Rome. Planted right in the path of the Persian attacks on the Byzantine Empire, the town must have led an anxious life, and many a time it beat off armies with the aid of the warrior Saint Sergius. Little else is heard of Resapha until the 4th century as a pilgrimage town of St. Sergius. Sergius and Bacchus were Syrian officers and lovers who died for their Christian faith in the early 3rd century, about 290 CE. They became known as defenders of the town, and considered Saints. The tomb of S. Sergius at Resapha around 305 a.d. become a famous shrine and was honored by great gatherings of Christians because of the frequent miracles there. Entrance (view from inside) Some indication of the fame of St. Sergius is the fact that one of his greatest devotees was Chosroes II, King of Persia, a pagan ruler. During a crisis in his affairs, Chosroes appealed for help to St. Sergius and vowed to the martyr a golden cross should his wish be granted. Not only did he fulfill his promise, but he sent back to Resapha the gold cross of Justinian, which had been looted during a Persian raid in the time of Chosroes I. On a second occasion the Persian King appealed to St. Sergius, this time that one of his wives might have a son. This desire was also granted. In order to show his gratitude, the Persian sent to the priests of Resapha many precious gifts, including rich vessels to be used in the services of the church and bearing his name. In 431, Bishop Alexander of Hierapolis built a magnificent church in Sergius' honor. In 434, the town of Resapha was raised to the rank of an Episcopal see and was named "Sergiopolis" after Saint Sergius, and soon became one of the greatest pilgrimage centers of the East. When Islam had overcome Christianity, one of the first Caliphs, the Umayaad Hisham, came to live in Rasafa, after he had had palatial summer residences built there, which in their riches were compared with the palaces of Baghdad. But less than six years after his death in 743, the Abbasides desecrated the sepulcher of their brother enemy and destroyed every one of the buildings and the monuments he had erected. The actual site is huge. The remains of the thick walls, the Baptistery, basilicas, the enormous water cistern and an Umayaad Palace provide a fascinating sight. Interior From the north gate, the Via Recta formed the main thoroughfare of the cityof Resapha. It is now no more than a pathway overgrown with grass, but lining it on either side there are still blocks of marble, the broken stumps of pillars and chunks of wall from the past. The street leads to a first building of some size: the martyrium, a church where, at an early date, the bodies of Saint Sergius and his companions Bacchus and Julia were laid to rest. It is a basilican church with an apse erected at the beginning of 4th century. The floor and walls are made of gypsum stone found in Resapha and the great monolithic columns are of rose-colored marble. The apsidal chapels are well preserved; the capitals and the archway carved like lace. Several archways are early Roman style; then were later filled in and the arch remodeled in the Arab style. There are many examples of column capitals in the Arabic style, which is similiar to Corinthian. Unfortunately, the whole structure seems to stand only by a miracle; the keystone has already slipped more than half its height. Clearing, restoration and strengthening us urgently needed if this relic from one of the great periods of Syrian art is not to become a scatter of stones forgotten in the sand. Interior Interior A hundred meters east of the martyrium stands a larger and more majestic replica of the first church, the great basilica dedicated to Saint Sergius. It has the same logical layout, the same shapeliness, the same pretty decoration and, of course, the same great beauty of the building material. Built on to the north wall of the basilica, and perhaps taken from a lateral nave of the Christian building, is a big rectangular, colonnaded hall used as a mosque in the 13th or 14th century. Two alcoves made in the church wall became mihrabs. There are both Byzantine and Arab writing which confirm that the two religious, Christianity and Islam, lived side by side at Rasafa right into the Middle Ages. Close to the great basilica, an opening in the south-east corner of the rampart leads outside the walls to a knoll on which Caliph Hisham built his palace with a square layout and with all the rooms opening on to a vast inner courtyard. Unfortunately, the destruction wreaked by the hatred of the Abbassides for the Omayyads and centuries of erosion of the brick have left little here to fire the imagination. Behind the martyrium, several vaulted rooms are to be seen in a building with a central courtyard, a cavansary, later an inn for pilgrims. Their capacity gives a good idea of the population of Rasafa, now nothing more than a tiny fragment of crystal glittering in a dreary desert. The apse Photographs by James George and Francis E. Luisier