January 16th, 2015
Saints Julian and Basilissa (died ca. 304) were a couple, who died was martyrs at either Antioch or, more probably, at Antinoe, in Egypt during the reign of Diocletian. They are venerated as saints by different Christian confessions. According to tradition, Julian, who had made a vow of chastity, was forced by his family to marry Basilissa, who also wanted to consecrate herself to God. So, they bended up getting married but he agreed with his spouse that they should both preserve their virginity throughout their lives.
S. Gião (hagionym derived from Saint Julian)
First floor
Ground floor
small houses, cool places!
Further he encouraged her to found a convent for women, of which she became the superior, while he himself gathered a large number of monks and undertook their direction.
The two converted their home into a hospital which could house up to thousand people. Basilissa, after having stood severe persecutions, died in peace; Julian survived her many years, but was beheaded under the persecutions of Diocletian.
“The four houses that were and will, once again, be enclosed within walls, are now, for a brief moment, one single layered space filtered by the wooden lace of the wall structure. One can’t really tell in which direction the construction is progressing: although the existing walls are being dismantled, they presente the appearance of the early stage of its
construction, one hundred years ago, when the carpenters left their work prepared to receive the stone and plaster filling.”
“The houses appear magnificent, of a see through quality that existed for a flickering moment during its construction, in the early 1900s, and now, in a reverse process of dismantling, as a single house.”
