At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire,
was the largest and richest city in the Christian world. To the Arabs,
it was Kostantiniyye, the impregnable citadel that had defied the armies of the caliphs. The
Vikings called it Micklegarth, “the great walled place,” and wondered at
its riches. The Turks of Anatolia may have already begun to call it Istanbul.
Whatever the name, Constantinople was a spectacular place. At the city’s heart was
the sprawling Great Palace, overlooking the Hippodrome and its ancient statues.
Across the square known as the Augustaion rose the dome of Hagia Sophia. A broad
colonnaded avenue connected these monuments with the forums of Constantine and Theodosius,
and finally with the gates of the towering Theodosian Walls.
Near the walls, with the exception of the region around the Blachernae Palace – the preferred
imperial residence after the eleventh century – large areas were set aside for reservoirs,
orchards, and market gardens. Most of the city’s 400,000 inhabitants lived closer to the center,
where churches and marble-walled mansions loomed over the packed hovels of the poor.
The fires that accompanied the Crusader sack of 1204 destroyed about half of the city,
and the ensuing Latin occupation was almost equally devastating, as the cash-strapped
westerners cannibalized the city’s treasures. After the restoration of Byzantine rule,
and especially after the catastrophic civil wars of the mid-fourteenth century,
the emperors lacked the resources to repair more than a handful of the most important buildings.
By the eve of the Turkish conquest, much of Constantinople lay in ruins. Travelers
compared the outlying districts to a rural landscape scattered
with villages. The Great Palace was a shell, the Hippodrome was overgrown,
and the Church of the Holy Apostles – mausoleum of the emperors – was collapsing.
After the Ottomans took the city in 1453, Constantinople became the capital of a rich
and rapidly expanding Islamic empire. Topkapi Palace rose on the summit of
the ancient acropolis, and the city’s other hills were soon crowned by vast
imperial mosques. The population swelled to, and then beyond, its Byzantine peak.
With the exception of the larger churches – which usually became mosques – most of
the Byzantine city was soon demolished for building material. Over the past century,
the continued growth of modern Istanbul has covered much of what remained. But if you
know where to look, traces of medieval and ancient Constantinople can still be found.
During late antiquity, a series of Byzantine emperors set up
honorific columns in the public places of Constantinople. Ultimately inspired by the
Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Rome, these were imposing monuments,
designed to loom over the surrounding area. Some were granite monoliths imported from Egypt;
others were decorated with spiraling bands of marble reliefs. All were crowned with statues.
The remains of one of Byzantine Constantinople’s honorific columns can be found in the second
courtyard of Topkapi Palace. We have here the impost block – that’s the giant block
that went on top of the capital – from the Column of Leo I, who reigned around the end of the fifth
century. We have a larger part over here – the entire capital. The monument was demolished in
the early Ottoman period, probably just for building material. It ended up here,
where bits were reused; but a few sections survived, including this
wonderful capital – which as you can see has human faces incorporated into its acanthus leaves.
This is the column of the emperor Marcian. It consists of two joined
columns of Egyptian granite, and its capital – adorned, as you can see,
with eagles – once carried a seated statue of the emperor. That statue is long gone, but you can
still see this wonderful relief of Nike, along with the dedicatory inscription,
which reads “This is the monument of the emperor Marcian, dedicated by the prefect Tatianus.”
The most imposing of Constantinople’s honorific columns were associated with the imperial
forums. Like their predecessors in Rome, these were monumental plazas ringed by colonnades,
designed to celebrate the victories and glory of the reigning emperor.
The Forum of Constantine was a circular plaza ringed by colonnades. It was bounded on one
side by the senate house, and on the other by a nymphaeum. All that vanished long ago,
but the honorific column at the center of the plaza – made, uniquely and extravagantly,
of porphyry – still survives. It was crowned originally by a statue of
Constantine wearing a radiate crown. That toppled in the twelfth century – you can
see that the top drum is a later Byzantine restoration – but the rest still survives,
albeit a bit charred, a remarkable testimony to this vanished public place.
The Forum of Theodosius, completed in 393, was an expansive monumental square
that featured a basilica, an honorific column, and an imposing triumphal arch,
whose own columns – rather exotically – were made to look like clubs. You can see those
tear-shaped patterns; those are actually lopped branches, as though hewn from a tree. At the top
of those lopped branches was a fist – and if you look just below me here, there are the fingers.
The column at the center of the Forum of Theodosius, which stood
roughly in the middle of your screen, resembled the column of Trajan at Rome,
with lines of spiraling reliefs. Though the column was destroyed around 1500, a few of those
reliefs were incorporated into the foundations of the Baths of Beyazit, as you can see here.
Most of Byzantine Constantinople’s churches were converted into mosques
within a century of the Ottoman conquest. In addition, of course, to Hagia Sophia,
many of these can still be visited: highlights include the Monastery of the Pantokrator,
the Chora Church, and the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
Between 524 and 527, the immensely wealthy heiress Anicia Juliana,
the daughter and granddaughter of emperors, built a church dedicated to Saint Polyeuctus.
It was widely considered to be the most impressive church in Constantinople. It was a huge structure,
roughly the size of Suleymaniye Mosque, and very richly decorated;
Justinian’s Hagia Sophia was built to rival it. It burned sometime in the Middle Byzantine period,
and was plundered by the Venetians. As you can see, it’s currently under excavation.
Only a small part of the Great Palace – the mosaic museum near the Blue Mosque – is accessible today,
and only facades remain of the Boukoleon and Blachernae Palaces. The mansions built
by the Byzantine elite have also virtually disappeared, with two notable exceptions.
This is part of the Palace of Antiochus. Antiochus was a court eunuch in the reign
of Theodosius II – that is, in the first part of the fifth century AD. He was immensely wealthy,
and built this colossal mansion beside the Hippodrome. We’re looking at what used to
be known as the Palace of Lausus, which has now been established as an antechamber or reception
room for the larger Palace of Antiochus. Most of that mansion lay off to our right, behind that
tall fence. Its central feature was an enormous triclinium, or dining room, that was circular in
form and had elaborate apses worked into the walls. After Antiochus’ death, this became a
church dedicated to saint Euphemia, and served as such – it seems – until the Ottoman conquest.
To my right are the substructures of a very substantial Middle Byzantine building. But
what that building was is unclear. It may have been the Botaneiates Palace – but
this is just conjecture. It served later as a cistern – and now, unfortunately,
is just a place to leave trash. Let’s see if we can take a look inside.
Although most of the extant remains of ancient and medieval Constantinople
belong to imposing monumental structures, there are also scattered remains of the
more utilitarian buildings where most Byzantines lived and worked.
It seemed fitting to close with Constantinople’s oldest and most mysterious monument. This is the
Column of the Goths. It received its name from the inscription on its base, which reads: “To Fortune,
giving thanks in return for victory over the Goths.” We don’t know who set it up. It may
have been Constantine. Or it may have been Claudius Gothicus in the previous century,
when Constantinople was still Byzantion. Its capital carried a statue of Tyche,
the goddess of good fortune, or possibly – according to a different source – of
Byzas the Megarian, the founder of Byzantion. Whoever set it up,
and whoever it commemorated, it survives as a tantalizing fragment of Byzantine Constantinople.
For more overlooked Byzantine buildings, check out my tour of Byzantine Thessaloniki,
which is linked onscreen and in the description.
Re-use endscreen audio from Dacia video: My new book – Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities,
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