ABSTRACT
The church of Hagia Sophia was originally at the centre of a monastic complex, of which nothing now survives. A photograph by Gabriel Millet of 1893 records the existence of a vaulted, two-storey gatehouse at the southwest corner of the site.1 It must have been one of many structures that made up a walled compound around the church, as Finlay noted on his visit in 1850 how well fortified the site was.2 All are now lost. Being so far from the walls of the city itself, Hagia Sophia required a high level of protection from the Seljuq and Georgian raids to which Trebizond was subject throughout the thirteenth century. The combination of the outcrop of rock on which the church stands and man-made fortifications would have provided this. The significance of the location of the church is examined in the following chapter.
