This palace was built at an unknown time into the ruins of a vast late antique palace. It stood on an elevated platform that was formed by inserting a cistern into the former circular main hall. The monumental semicircular courtyard in front of the rotunda which connected it to the colonnaded main street in the north, still survived, but was not accessible from the new buildings on the platform. Under the name of Ta Amastrianou (= property of a man from Amastris) it was used as a market place and for executions. The new palace later became property of Romanos Lakapenos and was converted by him into a monastery at the beginning of his reign (920-944).