The Church of the Virgin of the Pharos stood in the southern part of the Great Palace of Constantinople, named after the adjacent lighthouse tower. It is first mentioned in a chronicle for the year 769, so it was probably built in the eighth century. Emperor Michael III extensively rebuilt and redecorated it after iconoclasm ended, and the rededication probably took place in 864.
It was a relatively small building with a ribbed dome, three apses, a narthex and an atrium. It served as the chief palace chapel of the Byzantine emperors. By 940 it held the Holy Lance and part of the True Cross, and later it received the Crown of Thorns and a Holy Nail.
It avoided plunder in the Fourth Crusade sack of 1204, but its relics were later scattered across Western Europe. Louis IX of France built the Sainte-Chapelle in direct imitation of it. The chapel did not survive the Latin occupation.
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