ABSTRACT
In my eorts to understand Byzantium I have often felt frustrated that words alone seem inadequate for such a subject, and left me unsure of its realities. As an instance of this diculty, when I worked at the Kosmosoteira monastery at Bera in race, I could not and still cannot comprehend how two pairs of slim columns are able to support one of the largest – seven metres in diameter – and heaviest domes in any cross-inscribed church.1 In addition, the southern pair of columns lean away from the perpendicular, causing the marble trunks to split. Despite careful measurements and calculations, it has not been possible to ascertain whether this dangerous deection of the columns, and the consequent subsidence of the dome by 50-70 centimetres, occurred during the construction of the church in the middle of the twelfth century or in more recent years.
