New! Constantinople on the Willamette: Byzantine Architecture in Portland

For a thousand years the imperial city of Constantinople on the Bosphorus was the greatest metropolis on earth. Its soaring church of Hagia Sophia, with a dome intended to symbolize the vault of the heavens, represented the culmination of Greco-Roman engineering and design.

Nearly five hundred years after the city was conquered by the Turks, in A.D. 1453, and its name changed to Istanbul, Byzantine architecture provided the inspiration for an exotic revival across the United States. Temple Beth Israel in Northwest Portland (1928) is one of the nation’s finest examples of this style, yet several others are to be found around the city - and in some very unexpected places.

Join us as AHC Education Committee member John Doyle discusses the Byzantine Revival style in Portland, the original Byzantine architecture which inspired it, and the history of this unique style in the United States.

Sponsored by: Kraft Custom Construction

This lecture program is held at the Architectural Heritage Center - 701 SE Grand Avenue.

Parking is on-street (free on Saturdays) or in the parking lot on the west side of Grand Avenue between SE Yamhill and Belmont Streets - just to the north of the Grand Marketplace. Do not use the lot where Dutch Bros. Coffee is located. Thank you to Bolliger and Sons Insurance for sharing their lot with us for our evening and Saturday education programs.

Image: Temple Beth Israel (1928), Architectural Heritage Center Photo.