Walls of Constantinople
Encyclopedia
The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls
that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople
(today Istanbul
in Turkey
) since its founding as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification
system of antiquity
, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, when well manned, they were almost impregnable for any medieval besieger, saving the city, and the Byzantine Empire
with it, during sieges from the Avars
, Arabs, Rus', and Bulgars
, among others (see Sieges of Constantinople
). The advent of gunpowder
siege cannons rendered the fortifications vulnerable, leading to the fall of Constantinople
to the Ottomans
on 29 May 1453 after a prolonged siege.
The walls were largely maintained intact during most of the Ottoman period, until sections began to be dismantled in the 19th century, as the city outgrew its medieval boundaries. Despite the subsequent lack of maintenance, many parts of the walls survived and are still standing today. A large-scale restoration programme has been under way since the 1980s, which allows the visitor to appreciate their original appearance.
by Greek colonists from Megara
, led by the eponymous Byzas
, around 658 BC. At the time the city consisted of a small region around an acropolis
, located on the easternmost hill (corresponding to the modern site of the Topkapi Palace
). According to the late Byzantine Patria of Constantinople
, ancient Byzantium was enclosed by a small wall, which began on the northern edge of the acropolis, extended west to the Tower of Eugenios, then went south and west towards the Strategion and the Baths of Achilles, continued south to the area known in Byzantine times as Chalkoprateia, and then turned, in the area of the Hagia Sophia
, in a loop towards the northeast, crossed the regions known as Topoi and Arcadianae and reached the sea at the later quarter of Mangana. This wall was protected by 27 towers, and had at least two landward gates, one which survived to become known as the Arch of Urbicius, and one where the Milion monument was later located. On the seaward side, the wall was much lower. Although the author of the Patria asserts that this wall dated to the time of Byzas, the French researcher Raymond Janin thinks it more likely that it reflects the situation after the city was rebuilt by the Spartan general Pausanias
, who conquered the city in 479 BC. This wall is known to have been repaired, utilising tomb stones, under the leadership of a certain Leo in 340 BC, against an attack by Philip II of Macedon
.
Byzantium was relatively unimportant during the early Roman period. Contemporaries described it as wealthy, well-peopled and well-fortified, but this affluence came at an end due to its support for Pescennius Niger
(r. 193–194) in his war against Septimius Severus
(r. 193–211). According to the account of Dio Cassius
(Roman History, 75.10-14), the city held out against Severan forces for three years, until 196, with its inhabitants resorting even to throwing bronze statues to the besiegers when they ran out of other projectiles. Severus punished the city harshly: the strong walls were demolished and the city was deprived of its civic status, being reduced to a mere village dependent on Heraclea Perinthus. However, appreciating the city's strategic importance, Severus eventually rebuilt it and endowed it with many monuments, including a Hippodrome
and the Baths of Zeuxippos, as well as a new set of walls, located some 300–400 m to the west of the old ones. Little is known of the Severan Wall save for a short description of its course by Zosimus
(New History, II.30.2-4) and that its main gate was located at the end of a portico
ed avenue (the first part of the later Mese
) and shortly before the entrance of the later Forum of Constantine
. The wall seems to have extended from near the modern Galata Bridge
in the Eminönü
quarter south through the vicinity of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque
to curve around the southern wall of the Hippodrome, and then going northeast to meet the old walls near the Bosporus. The Patria also mention the existence of another wall during the siege of Byzantium by Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) during the latter's conflict with Licinius
(r. 308–324), in 324. The text mentions that a fore-wall (proteichisma) was running near the Philadephion, located at about the middle of the later, Constantinian city, suggesting the expansion of the city beyond the Severan Wall by this time.
(r. 337–361). Only the approximate course of the wall is known: it began at the Church of St. Anthony at the Golden Horn, near the modern Atatürk Bridge, ran southwest and then southwards, passed east of the great open cisterns of Mocius and Aspar, and ended near the Church of the Theotokos
of the Rhabdos on the Propontis coast, somewhere between the later sea gates of St. Aemilianus and Psamathos.
Already by the early 5th century however, Constantinople had expanded outside the Constantinian Wall, in the extramural area known as the Exokionion or Exakionion. The wall survived during much of the Byzantine period, even though it was replaced by the Theodosian Walls as the city's primary defence. An ambiguous passage refers to extensive damage to the city's "inner wall" from an earthquake on 25 September 478, which likely refers to the Constantinian wall, and Theophanes the Confessor
reports renewed earthquake damage in 557
. It appears that large parts survived relatively intact until the 9th century: the 11th-century historian Kedrenos
records that the "wall at Exokionion", likely a portion of the Constantinian wall, collapsed in an earthquake in 867. Only traces of the wall appear to have survived in later ages, although Van Millingen
states that some parts survived in the region of the İsakapı until the early 19th century.
The Old Golden Gate , known also as the Xerolophos Gate and the Gate of Saturninus, is mentioned in the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae
, which further states that the city wall itself in the region around it was "ornately decorated". The gate stood somewhere on the southern slopes of the Seventh Hill. Its construction is often attributed to Constantine, but is in fact of uncertain age. It survived until the 14th century, when the Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras
described it as being built of "wide marble blocks with a lofty opening", and crowned by a kind of stoa
. In late Byzantine times, a painting of the Crucifixion
was allegedly placed on the gate, leading to its later Ottoman name, İsakapı ("Gate of Jesus
"). It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1509, but its approximate location is known through the presence of the nearby İsakapı Mescidi mosque.
The identity and location of the Gate of At[t]alos are unclear. Cyril Mango identifies it with the Old Golden Gate; van Millingen places it on the Seventh Hill, at a height probably corresponding to one of the later gates of the Theodosian Wall in that area; and Raymond Janin places it further north, across the Lycus and near the point where the river passed under the wall. In earlier centuries, it was decorated with many statues, including one of Constantine, which fell down in an earthquake in 740.
The only gate whose location is known with certainty, aside from the Old Golden Gate, is the Gate of Saint Aemilianus , named in Turkish Davutpaşa Kapısı. It lay at the juncture with the sea walls, and served the communication with the coast. According to the Chronicon Paschale
, the Church of St Mary of Rhabdos, where the rod of Moses
was kept, stood next to the gate.
The Old Gate of the Prodromos , named after the nearby Church of St John the Baptist (called Prodromos, "the Forerunner", in Greek), is another unclear case. Van Millingen identifies it with the Old Golden Gate, while Janin considers it to have been located on the northern slope of the Seventh Hill.
The last known gate is the Gate of Melantias , whose location is also debated. Van Millingen considered it to be a gate of the Theodosian Wall (the Pege Gate), while more recently, Janin and Mango have refuted this, suggesting that it was located on the Constantinian Wall. Again however, while Mango identifies it with the Gate of the Prodromos, Janin considers the name to have been a corruption of the ta Meltiadou quarter, and places the gate to the west of the Mocius cistern. Other authors identified it with the Gate of Adrianople (A.M. Schneider) or with the Gate of Rhesios (A.J. Mordtmann).
The so-called Theodosian Wall , located about 1,500 m to the west of the old wall, was erected during the early reign of Emperor Theodosius II
(r. 408–450), after whom it was named. The work was carried out under the direction of Anthemius
, the praetorian prefect of the East
, and was finished in 413 according to a law in the Codex Theodosianus
. An inscription discovered in 1993 however records that the work lasted for nine years, indicating that construction had already begun ca. 404/405, in the reign of Emperor Arcadius
(r. 395–408). New Rome now enclosed seven hills and justified the appellation Heptalophos , in imitation of Elder Rome
. On 26 January 447 however, a powerful earthquake destroyed large parts of the wall, including 57 towers. Subsequent earthquakes, including another major one in January 448, compounded the damage. Theodosius II ordered the praetorian prefect Constantine
to supervise the repairs, made all the more urgent as the city was threatened by the presence of Attila the Hun
in the Balkans
. Employing the city's dēmoi (the "Circus
factions") in the work, the walls were restored in a record 60 days, according to the Byzantine chroniclers and inscriptions found in situ. Based on some inscriptions, some scholars also suggested that at this point, the second outer wall was added, and a wide ditch
opened in front of the walls, but the validity of this interpretation is questionable; the outer wall was probably an integral part of the original fortification concept. Throughout their history, the walls were damaged by earthquakes, and repairs were undertaken on numerous occasions, as testified by the numerous inscriptions commemorating the emperors or their servants who undertook to restore them.
and Constantine
(Gk. Pyrgos Basileiou kai Kōnstantinou) on the Propontis coast to the Golden Horn
. The total length of the surviving walls is 5,630 m, from the Sea of Marmara
to the suburb of Blachernae
near the Golden Horn
, while the section between the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
(known in Turkish
as Tekfur Sarayı) and the Golden Horn does not survive, since the line of the walls was later brought forward to cover the suburb of Blachernae
.
From the Sea of Marmara, the wall turns sharply to the northeast, until it reaches the Golden Gate, at about 14 m above sea level. From there and until the Gate of Rhegion (modern Mevlevihane Kapısı) the wall follows a more or less straight line to the north, climbing the city's Seventh Hill. From there the wall turns sharply to the northeast, climbing up to the Gate of St. Romanus, located near the peak of the Seventh Hill at some 68 m above sea level. From there the wall descends into the valley of the river Lycus, where it reaches its lowest point at 35 m above sea level. Climbing the slope of the Sixth Hill, the wall then rises up to the Gate of Charisius or Gate of Adrianople, at some 76 m height. This stretch of wall, between the gates of St. Romanus and Charisius, ca. 1,250 m in length, the so-called Mesoteichion (Μεσοτείχιον, "Middle Wall"), is the weakest part of the walls because of the morphology of the ground. Consequently, in most sieges of the city, this area was the focus of the main assault, albeit only in 1453 with success. From the Gate of Adrianople to the Blachernae, the walls fall to a level of some 60 m. From there the later walls of Blachernae project sharply to the west, reaching the coastal plain at the Golden Horn near the so-called Prisons of Anemas.
The inner wall is a solid structure, 5 m thick and 12 m high. It is faced with carefully cut limestone blocks, while its core is filled with mortar made of lime and crushed bricks. Between seven and eleven bands of brick
, ca. 40 cm thick, traverse the structure, not only as a form of decoration, but also strengthening the cohesion of the structure by bonding the stone façade with the mortar core, and increasing endurance to earthquake
s. The wall was strengthened with 96 towers, mainly square but also a few octagonal ones, three hexagonal and a single pentagonal one. They were 18–20 meters tall, and placed at intervals of 55 meters. Each tower had a battlemented terrace on the top. Its interior was usually divided by a floor into two chambers, which did not communicate with each other. The lower chamber, which opened through the main wall to the city, was used for storage, while the upper one could be entered from the wall's walkway, and had windows for view and for firing projectiles. Access to the wall was provided by large ramps along their side. The lower floor could also be accessed from the peribolos by small posterns. Generally speaking, most of the surviving towers have been rebuilt either in Byzantine or in Ottoman times, and only the foundations of some are of original Theodosian construction. Furthermore, while until the Komnenian period the reconstructions largely remained true to the original model, later modifications ignored the windows and embrasures on the upper store and focused on the tower terrace as the sole fighting platform.
The outer wall was 2 m thick at its base, and featured arched chambers on the level of the peribolos, crowned with a battlemented walkway, reaching a height of 8.5 m. Access to the Outer Wall from the city was provided either through the main gates or through small postern
s on the base of the Inner Wall's towers. The Outer Wall likewise had 96 towers, square or crescent-shaped, situated midway between the Inner Wall's towers, and acting in supporting role to them. They featured a room with windows on the level of the peribolos, crowned by a battlemented terrace, while their lower portions were either solid or featured small posterns, which allowed access to the outer terrace. The Outer Wall was a formidable defensive edifice in its own right: in the sieges of 1422 and 1453, the Byzantines and their allies, being too few to hold both lines of wall, concentrated on the defence of the outer wall.
The moat was situated at a distance of about 20 m from the outer wall, creating a terrace called parateichion , where a paved road ran along the walls' length. The moat itself was over 20 m wide and 10 m deep, featuring a 1.5 m tall crenellated wall on the inner side, serving as a first line of defence. Transverse walls cross the moat, tapering towards the top so as not to be used as bridges. Some of them have been shown to contain pipes carrying water into the city from the hill country to the city's north and west. Their role has therefore been interpreted as that of aqueducts for filling the moat and as dams dividing it into compartments and allowing the water to be retained over the course of the walls. However, there is little direct evidence in the accounts of the city's sieges to suggest that the moat was ever actually flooded.
s. The exact identification of several gates is a debatable, for a number of reasons. The Byzantine chroniclers provide more names than the number of the gates, the original Greek names fell mostly out of use during the Ottoman period, and literary and archaeological sources provide often contradictory information. Only three gates, the Golden Gate, the Gate of Rhesion and the Gate of Charisius, can be established directly from the literary evidence.
In the traditional nomenclature, established by Philipp Anton Dethier in 1873, the gates are distinguished into the "Public Gates" and the "Military Gates", which alternated over the course of the walls. According to Dethier's theory, the former were given names and were open to civilian traffic, leading across the moat on bridges, while the latter were known by numbers, restricted to military use, and only led to the outer sections of the walls. Today however, this division is, if at all, retained only as a historiographical convention. First, there is sufficient reason to believe that several of the "Military Gates" were also used by civilian traffic. In addition, a number of them have proper names, and the established sequence of numbering them, based on their perceived correspondence with the names of certain city quarters lying between the Constantinian and Theodosian walls which have numerical origins, has been shown to be erroneous: for instance, the Deuteron, the "Second" quarter, was not located in the southwest behind the Gate of the Deuteron or "Second Military Gate" as would be expected, but in the northwestern part of the city.
Following the walls from south to north, the Golden Gate , is the first gate to be encountered. It was main ceremonial entrance into the capital, used especially for the occasions of a triumph
al entry of an emperor into the capital on the occasion of military victories or other state occasions such as coronations. On rare occasions, as a mark of honor, the entry through the gate was allowed to non-imperial visitors: papal legate
s (in 519 and 868) and, in 710, to Pope Constantine
. The Gate was used for triumphal entries until the Komnenian period; thereafter, the only such occasion was the entry of Michael VIII Palaiologos
into the city on 15 August 1261, after its reconquest from the Latins
. With the progressive decline in Byzantium's military fortunes, the gates were walled up and reduced in size in the later Palaiologan period, and the complex converted into a citadel and refuge. The Golden Gate was emulated elsewhere, with several cities naming their principal entrance thus, for instance Thessaloniki
(also known as the Vardar Gate) or Antioch
(the Gate of Daphne), as well as the Kievan Rus'
, who built monumental "Golden Gates" at Kiev
and Vladimir
.
The date of the gate's construction is uncertain, with scholars divided between Theodosius I
and Theodosius II
. Earlier scholars favored the former, but the current majority view tends to the latter, meaning that the gate was constructed as an integral part of the Theodosian Walls. The debate has been carried over to an Latin inscription in metal letters, now lost, which stood above the doors and commemorated their gilding in celebration of the defeat of an unnamed usurper:
(English Translation)
Curiously, the legend has not been reported by any Byzantine author. However, an investigation of the surviving holes wherein the metal letters were riveted verified its accuracy. It also showed that the first line stood on the western face of the arch, while the second on the eastern. According to the current view, this refers to the usurper Joannes
(r. 423–425), while according to the supporters of the traditional view, it indicates the gate's construction as a free-standing triumphal arch
in 388–391 to commemorate the defeat of the usurper Magnus Maximus
(r. 385–388), and which was only later incorporated into the Theodosian Walls.
The gate, built of large square blocks of polished white marble
fitted together without cement, has the form of a triumphal arch with three arched gates, the middle one larger than the two others. The gate is flanked by large square towers, which form the 9th and 10th towers of the inner Theodosian wall. With the exception of the central portal, the gate remained open to everyday traffic. The structure was richly decorated with numerous statues, including a statue of Theodosius I on an elephant-drawn quadriga
on top, echoing the Porta Triumphalis of Rome, which survived until it fell down in an earthquake in 740. Other sculptures were a large cross, which fell in an earthquake in 561 or 562; a Victory
, which was cast down in the reign of Michael III
; and a crowned Fortune
of the City. In 965, Nikephoros II Phokas installed the captured bronze city gates of Mopsuestia
in the place of the original ones.
The main gate itself was covered by an outer wall, pierced by a single gate, which in later centuries was flanked by an ensemble of reused
marble reliefs. According to descriptions of Pierre Gilles and English travelers from the 17th century, these reliefs were arranged in two tiers, and featured mythological scenes, including the Labours of Hercules. These reliefs, lost since the 17th century with the exception of some fragments now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, were probably put in place in the 9th or 10th centuries to form the appearance of a triumphal gate. According to other descriptions, the outer gate was also topped by a statue of Victory
, holding a crown.
Despite its ceremonial role, the Golden Gate was one of the stronger positions along the walls of the city, withstanding several attacks during the various sieges. With the addition of transverse walls on the peribolos between the inner and outer walls, it formed a virtually separate fortress. Its military value was recognized by John VI Kantakouzenos
(r. 1347–1354), who records that it was virtually impregnable, capable of holding provisions for three years and defying the whole city if need be. He repaired the marble towers and garrisoned the fort with loyal Catalan soldiers, but had to surrender it to John V Palaiologos
(r. 1341–1391) when he abdicated in 1354. John V undid Kantakouzenos' repairs and left it unguarded, but in 1389–90 he too rebuilt and expanded the fortress, erecting two towers behind the gate and extending a wall some 350 m to the sea walls, thus forming a separate fortified enceinte inside the city to serve as a final refuge. In the event, John V was soon after forced to flee there from a coup led by his grandson, John VII
. The fort held out successfully in the subsequent siege that lasted several months, and in which cannons were possibly employed. In 1391 however, John V was compelled to raze the fort by Sultan Bayezid I
(r. 1382–1402), who otherwise threatened to blind his son Manuel
, whom he held captive. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos
(r. 1425–1448) attempted to rebuild it in 1434, but was thwarted by Sultan Murad II
.
After the final capture of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II built a new fort in 1458. By adding three larger towers to the four pre-existing ones (towers 8 to 11) on the inner Theodosian wall, he formed the Fortress of Seven Towers (Turkish Yedikule Hisarı, in Greek , Heptapyrgion). It lost its function as a gate, and for much of the Ottoman era, it was used as a treasury, archive and state prison. Among others, the ambassadors of states currently at war with the Porte were usually imprisoned there. Among its most notable prisoners was the young Sultan Osman II
, who was imprisoned and executed there by the Janissaries in 1622. The last Emperor of Trebizond, David Megas Komnenos, Constantin Brâncoveanu
of Wallachia
with his family, King Simon I
of Georgia
and a number of leading Ottoman pasha
s were also among those executed there. During the Napoleonic Wars
, the fortress was the prison of many French prisoners, including the writer and diplomat Francois Pouqueville
, who was detained there for more than two years (1799 to 1801) and who gave an extensive description of the fortress in his Voyage en Morée, à Constantinople, en Albanie, et dans plusieurs autres parties de l'Empire Othoman, pendant les années 1798, 1799, 1800 et 1801. The last prisoner was held in the Yedikule as late as 1837. Except for the initial 11 and last 4 sentences, all of the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Ivo Andrić
's novel Prokleta avlija (translated into English as Accursed and/or Damned Yard) happens in Yedikule Prison (link on the Andrić Foundation site).
A masjid (small mosque) and a fountain were built in the middle of the fort's inner courtyard, which also contained the houses of the garrison, forming a separate city quarter. The houses were torn down in the 19th century, and a girls' school was built in their place. The outer gate was re-opened in 1838, and the fort's towers functioned as gunpowder magazines for a while thereafter, until the whole facility was turned over to become a museum in 1895. An open-air theater has been built in more recent years, and is used for cultural festivals. Like its namesake in Jerusalem, the way to the Golden Gate is now obstructed by a Muslim cemetery.
According to Greek legend, when the Ottomans entered the city, an angel rescued the emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, turned him into marble and placed him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate, where he waits to be brought to life again
to conquer the city back for Christians.
The Second Military Gate or Xylokerkos Gate lies between towers 22 and 23. Its second name derives from the fact that it led to a wooden circus (amphitheatre
) outside the walls. According to a story related by Niketas Choniates, in 1189 the gate was walled off by Emperor Isaac II Angelos
, because according to a prophecy, it was this gate that Western Emperor Frederick Barbarossa would enter the city through. It was re-opened in 1346, but closed again before the siege of 1453 and remained closed until 1886, leading to its early Ottoman name, Kapalı Kapı ("Closed Gate"). Its is known today as the Belgrade
Gate (Belgrat Kapısı), after the Serbian
artisans settled there by Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent after he conquered Belgrade in 1521. Note that this gate does not open directly to the road to Belgrade (Via Militaris
), but to the road to Salonica, i.e. the old Via Egnatia
.
The Gate of the Spring or Pēgē Gate was named after a popular monastery outside the Walls, the Zōodochos Pēgē
("Life-giving Spring
") in the modern suburb of Balıklı
. Its modern Turkish name, Gate of Selymbria (Tr. Silivri Kapısı, Gk. ), appeared in Byzantine sources shortly before 1453. It lies between towers 35 and 36, which were extensively rebuilt in later Byzantine times and the gate arch was replaced in the Ottoman period. Van Millingen identifies this gate with the early Byzantine Gate of Melantias (Πόρτα Μελαντιάδος), but more recent scholars have proposed the identification of the latter with one of the gates of the city's original Constantinian Wall (see above).
It was through this gate that the forces of the Empire of Nicaea
, under General Alexios Strategopoulos
, entered and retook the city from the Latins
on 25 July 1261.
The Third Military Gate , named after the quarter of the Triton ("the Third") that lies behind it, is situated shortly after the Pege Gate, exactly before the C-shaped section of the walls known as the "Sigma
", between towers 39 and 40. It has no Turkish name, and is of middle or late Byzantine construction. The corresponding gate in the outer wall preserved until the early 20th century, but has since disappeared. It is very likely that this gate is to be identified with the Gate of Kalagros .
Modern Yeni Mevlevihane Kapısı, located between towers 50 and 51 is commonly referred to as the Gate of Rhegion in early modern texts, allegedly named after the suburb of Rhegion (modern Küçükçekmece
), or as the Gate of Rhousios after the hippodrome faction
of the Reds which was supposed to have taken part in its repair. From Byzantine texts however it appears that the correct form is Gate of Rhesios , named according to the 10th-century Suda
lexicon after an ancient general of Greek Byzantium
. Schneider also identifies it with the Gate of Myriandr[i]on or Polyandrion ("Place of Many Men"), possibly a reference to its proximity to a cemetery. It is the best-preserved of the gates, and retains substantially unaltered from its original, 5th-century appearance.
The Gate of St. Romanus was named so after a nearby church and lies between towers 65 and 66. It is known in Turkish as Topkapı, the "Cannon Gate", after the great Ottoman cannon, the "Basilic
", that was placed opposite it during the 1453 siege. With a gatehouse of 26,5 m, it is the second-largest gate after the Golden Gate. This gate was earlier identified as the "civil" Gate of St. Romanus. It is here that Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, was killed on 29 May 1453.
The Fifth Military Gate lies immediately to the north of the Lycus stream, between towers 77 and 78, and is named after the quarter of the Pempton ("the Fifth") around the Lycus. It is heavily damaged, with extensive late Byzantine or Ottoman repairs evident. The outer gate has vanished without a trace. It is also identified with the Byzantine Gate of [the Church of] St. Kyriake, and called Sulukulekapı ("Water-Tower Gate") or Hücum Kapısı ("Assault Gate") in Turkish, because there the decisive breakthrough was achieved on the morning of 29 May 1453. In the late 19th century, it appears as the Örülü kapı ("Walled Gate").
The Gate of Char[i]sius , named after the nearby early Byzantine monastery founded by a vir illustris
of that name, was, after the Golden Gate, the second-most important gate. In Turkish it is known as Edirnekapı ("Adrianople Gate"), and it is here where Mehmed II
made his triumphal entry into the conquered city. This gate stands on top of the sixth hill, which was the highest point of the old city at 77 meters. It has also been suggested as one of the gates to be identified with the Gate of Polyandrion or Myriandrion , because it led to a cemetery outside the Walls. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI
, established his command here in 1453.
The first postern lies between the two first towers of the Inner Wall, and features a wreathed Chi-Rhō
Christogram
above it. It was known in late Ottoman times as the Tabak Kapı. Similar posterns are the Yedikule Kapısı, a small postern after the Yedikule Fort (between towers 11 and 12), and the gates between towers 30/31, already walled up in Byzantine times, and 42/43, just north of the "Sigma". On the Yedikule Kapısı, opinions vary as to its origin: some scholars consider it to date already to Byzantine times, while others consider it an Ottoman addition.
According to the historian Doukas, on the morning of 29 May 1453, the small postern called Kerkoporta was left open by accident, allowing the first fifty or so Ottoman
troops to enter the city. The Ottomans raised their banner atop the Inner Wall and opened fire on the Greek defenders of the peribolos below. This spread panic, beginning the rout of the defenders and leading to the fall of the city
. In 1864, the remains of a postern located on the Outer Wall at the end of the Theodosian Walls, between tower 96 and the so-called Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
, were discovered and identified with the Kerkoporta by the Greek scholar A.G. Paspates. Later historians, like van Millingen and Steven Runciman
have accepted this theory as well. However, excavations at the site have uncovered no evidence of a corresponding gate in the Inner Wall (now vanished) in that area, and it may be that Doukas' story is either invention or derived from an earlier legend concerning the Xylokerkos Gate, which several earlier scholars also equated with the Kerkoporta.
. Indeed, in the words of the Cambridge Ancient History, they were "perhaps the most successful and influential city walls ever built – they allowed the city and its emperors to survive and thrive for more than a millennium, against all strategic logic, on the edge of [an] extremely unstable and dangerous world...".
With the advent of siege cannons, however, the fortifications became obsolete, but their massive size still provided effective defence, as demonstrated during the Second Ottoman Siege
in 1422. In the final siege, which led to the fall of the city to the Ottomans in 1453, the defenders, severely outnumbered, still managed to repeatedly counter Turkish attempts at undermining the walls, repulse several frontal attacks, and restore the damage from the siege cannons for almost two months. Finally, on 29 May, the decisive attack was launched, and when the Genoese general Giovanni Giustiniani
was wounded and withdrew, causing a panic among the defenders, the walls were taken. After the capture of the city, Mehmed had the walls repaired in short order among other massive public works projects, and they were kept in repair during the first centuries of Ottoman rule.
The Walls of Blachernae connect the Theodosian Walls, which terminate at the height of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
, with the sea wall at the Golden Horn
. They consist of a series of single walls built in different periods, which cover the suburb of Blachernae
. Generally they are about 12–15 meters in height, thicker than the Theodosian Walls and with more closely spaced towers. Situated on a steep slope, they lacked a moat, except on their lower end towards the Golden Horn, where Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos
had dug one.
The question of the original fortifications in this area has been examined by several scholars, and several theories have been proposed as to their course. It is known from the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae
that the XIV region, which comprised Blachernae, stood apart and was enclosed all around by a wall of its own. Further it is recorded that originally, and at least as late as the Avar siege of 626
, when they were burned down, the important sanctuaries of Panagia Blachernitissa
and St. Nicholas lay just outside the quarter's fortifications. Traces of the quarter's walls have been preserved, running from the area of the Porphyrogenitus Palace in straight line to the so-called Prison of Anemas
. The original fortified quarter can thereby be roughly traced to have comprised the two northern spurs of the city's Seventh Hill in a triangle, stretching from the Porphyrogenitus Palace to the Anemas Prison, from there to the church of St. Demetrios Kanabos and thence back to the Porphyrogenitus Palace. These fortifications were apparently older than the Theodosian Walls, probably dating to sometime in the 4th century, and were then connected to the new city walls under Theodosius II, with the western wall forming the outer face of the city's defences and the eastern wall fell into disrepair.
Today, the Theodosian Walls are connected in the vicinity of the Porphyrogenitus Palace with a short wall, which features a postern, probably the postern of the Porphyrogenitus recorded by John Kantakouzenos, and extends from the Palace to the first tower of the so-called Wall of Manuel Komnenos. As recorded by the historian Niketas Choniates, that wall was built by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos
(r. 1143–1180) as a protection to the imperial palace of Blachernae
, since the late 11th century the emperors' preferred residence. It is an architecturally excellent fortification, consisting of a series of arches closed on their outer face, built with masonry larger than usual and thicker than the Theodosian Walls, measuring some 5 m at the top. It features eight round and octagonal towers, while the last is square. The wall stretches for 220 m, beginning at an almost right angle from the line of the Theodosian Walls, going westward up to the third tower and then turning sharply north. The quality of the wall's construction was shown in the final Ottoman siege, when repeated attacks, intensive bombardment (including the large bombard of Orban
) and attempts at undermining it came to naught. The wall features one postern, between the second and third towers, and one large gate, the Eğri Kapı ("Crooked Gate"), between the sixth and seventh towers. Its Turkish name comes from the sharp bend of the road in front of it to pass around a tomb which is supposed to belong to Hazret Hafiz, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad
who died there during the first Arab siege
of the city. It is usually, but not conclusively, identified with the Byzantine Kaligaria Gate , the "Gate of the Bootmakers' Quarter" (cf. Latin caliga, "sandal").
From the last tower of the Wall of Manuel Komnenos to the so-called Prison of Anemas
stretches another wall, some 150 m in length, with four square towers. It is probably of later date, and of markedly inferior quality than the Komnenian wall, being less thick and with smaller stones and brick tiles utilized in its construction. It also bears inscriptions commemorating repairs in 1188, 1317 and 1441. A walled-up postern after the second tower is commonly identified with the Gyrolimne Gate , named after the Argyra Limnē, the "Silver Lake", which stood at the head of the Golden Horn. It probably serviced the Blachernae Palace, as evidenced by its decoration with three imperial busts. Schneider however suggests that the name could refer rather to the Eğri Kapı.
Then comes the outer wall of the Anemas Prison, which connects to a double stretch of walls. The outer wall is known as the Wall of Leo, as it was constructed by Leo V the Armenian
(r. 813–820) in 813 to safeguard against the siege by the Bulgarian
ruler Krum. This wall was then extended to the south by Michael II
(r. 820–829). The wall is a relatively light structure, less than 3 m thick, buttressed by arches which support its parapet
and featuring four towers and numerous loopholes. Behind the Leonine Wall lies an inner wall, which was renovated and strengthened by the additions of three particularly fine hexagonal towers by Emperor Theophilos
(r. 829–842). The two walls stand some 26 m apart and are pierced by a gate each, together comprising the Gate of Blachernae . The two walls form a fortified enclosure, called the Brachionion or Brachiolion (βραχιόνιον/βραχιόλιον, "bracelet") of the Blachernae by the Byzantines, and known after the Ottoman capture of the city in Greek as the Pentapyrgion (Πενταπύργιον, "Five Towers"), in allusion to the Yedikule (Gk. Heptapyrgion) fortress. The inner wall is traditionally identified by scholars like Millingen and Janin with the Wall of Heraclius, built by Emperor Heraclius
(r. 610–641) after the Avar siege to enclose and protect the Church of the Blachernitissa. Schneider however identified it in part with the Pteron (Πτερόν, "wing"), built at the time of Theodosius II to cover the northern flank of the Blachernae (hence its alternate designation as proteichisma, "outwork
") from the Anemas Prison to the Golden Horn. Consequently, Schneider transferred the identity of the Heraclian Wall on the short stretch of sea wall directly attached to it to its east, which displays a distinct architecture separate from the other.
Another, short wall was added in later times, probably in the reign of Theophilos, stretching from the junction of the land and sea walls to the sea itself, and pierced by the so-called Wooden Gate (Ξυλίνη πύλη, Xylinē pylē, or Ξυλόπορτα, Xyloporta). Both this wall and the gate were demolished in 1868.
, but the restoration program has been criticized for destroying historical evidence, focusing on superficial restoration, the use of inappropriate materials and poor quality of work. This became apparent in the 1999 earthquakes
, when the restored sections collapsed while the original structure underneath remained intact. The threat posed by urban pollution, and the lack of a comprehensive restoration effort, prompted the World Monuments Fund
to include them on its 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world.
. Although the original city of Byzantium certainly had sea walls, traces of which survive, the exact date for the construction of the medieval walls is a matter of debate. Traditionally, the seaward walls have been attributed by scholars to Constantine I, along with the construction of the main land wall. However, the first actual reference to their construction comes in 439, when the urban prefect Cyrus of Panopolis
(in sources often confused with the praetorian prefect Constantine
) was ordered to repair the city walls and complete them on the seaward side. This activity is certainly not unconnected to the fact that in the same year, Carthage
fell to the Vandals
, an event which signaled the emergence of a naval threat in the Mediterranean. This two-phase construction remains the general consensus; Cyril Mango
however doubts the existence of any seaward fortifications during Late Antiquity
, as they are not specifically mentioned as extant by contemporary sources until much later, around the year 700.
The Sea Walls were architecturally similar to the Theodosian Walls, but of simpler construction. They were formed by a single wall, considerably lower than the land walls, with inner circuits in the locations of the harbours. Enemy access to the walls facing the Golden Horn was prevented by the presence of a heavy chain or boom, installed by Emperor Leo III
(r. 717–741), supported by floating barrels and stretching across the mouth of the inlet. One end of this chain was fastened to the Tower of Eugenius, in the modern suburb of Sirkeci
, and the other in Galata
, to a large, square tower, the Kastellion, the basement of which was later turned into the Yeraltı (underground) Mosque. At the same time, on the Marmara coast, the city's defence was helped by strong currents, which made an attack by a fleet almost impossible. According to Geoffrey of Villehardouin
, it was for this reason that the Fourth Crusade
did not attack the city from this side.
During the early centuries of its existence, Constantinople faced few naval threats. Especially after the wars of Justinian, the Mediterranean had again become a "Roman lake". It was during the first siege of the city by the Avars
and the Sassanid Persians
that for the first time, a naval engagement was fought off the city itself. However, after the Arab conquests
of Syria
and Egypt
, a new naval threat emerged. In response, the sea walls were renovated in the early 8th century under Tiberios III
(r. 698–705) or Anastasios II
(r. 713–715). Michael II
(r. 820–829) initiated a wide-scale reconstruction, eventually completed by his successor Theophilos
(r. 829–842), which increased their height. As these repairs coincided with the capture of Crete
by the Saracens, no expense was spared: As Constantine Manasses
wrote, "the gold coins of the realm were spent as freely as worthless pebbles". Theophilos' extensive work, essentially rebuilding the sea walls, is testified to by the numerous inscriptions found or otherwise recorded that bear his name, more than those of any other emperor. Despite future changes and restorations, these walls would essentially protect the city until the end of the empire.
During the siege of the city by the Fourth Crusade, the sea walls nonetheless proved to be a weak point in the city's defences, as the Venetians managed to storm them. Following this experience, Michael VIII Palaiologos
(r. 1259–1282) took particular care to heighten and strengthen the seaward walls immediately after the Byzantine recapture of the city in 1261, since a Latin attempt to recover the city was regarded as imminent. Furthermore, the installation of the Genoese
at Galata
across the Golden Horn, agreed upon in the Treaty of Nymphaeum
, posed a further potential threat to the city. Time being short, as a Latin attempt to recover the city was expected, the sea walls were heightened by the addition of two-meter high wooden and hide-covered screens. Ten years later, facing the threat of an invasion by Charles d'Anjou
, a second line of walls was built behind the original maritime walls, although no trace of them survives today.
The walls were again restored under Andronikos II Palaiologos
(r. 1282–1328) and again under his successor Andronikos III Palaiologos
(r. 1328–1341), when, on 12 February 1332, a major storm caused breaches in the wall and forced the seaward gates open. In 1351, when the empire was at war with the Genoese, John VI Kantakouzenos
again repaired the walls, and even opened a moat in front of the wall facing the Golden Horn. Other repairs are recorded for 1434, again against the Genoese, and again in the years leading up to the final siege and fall of the city to the Ottomans, partly with funds provided by the Despot of Serbia
, George Brankovic.
, where in later times most seaborne traffic was conducted, stretched for a total length of 5,600 metres from the cape of St. Demetrius to the Blachernae, where it adjoined the Land Walls. Although most of the wall was demolished in the 1870s, during the construction of the railway line, its course and the position of most gates and towers is known with accuracy. It was built further inland from the shore, and was about 10 metres tall. According to Cristoforo Buondelmonti
it featured 14 gates and 110 towers, although 16 gates are known that are of Byzantine origin. The northern shore of the city was always its more cosmopolitan part: a major focal point of commerce, it also contained the quarters allocated to feoreigners living in the imperial capital. Muslim traders had their own lodgings (mitaton) there, including a mosque
, while from the time of Alexios I Komnenos
(r. 1081–1118) on, the emperors granted to the various Italian maritime republics extensive trading quarters which included their own wharfs (skalai) beyond the sea walls.
The known gates of the Golden Horn wall are, in order, from the Blachernae eastwards to the Seraglio Point:
The first gate, very near the land walls, was the Koiliomene Gate , in Turkish Küçük Ayvansaray
Kapısı. Shortly after stood the Gate of St. Anastasia
, located near the Atik Mustafa Pasha Mosque
, hence in Turkish Atik Mustafa Paşa Kapısı. In close proximity on the outer side of the walls lay the Church of St. Nicholas Kanabos, which in 1597–1601 served as the cathedral of the Patriarch of Constantinople
.
Further down the coast was the gate known in Turkish as Balat Kapı ("Palace Gate"), preceded in close order by three large archways, which served either as gates to the shore or to a harbour that serviced the imperial palace of Blachernae. Two gates are known to have existed in the vicinity in Byzantine times: the Kynegos Gate "), whence the quarter behind it was named Kynegion, and the Gate of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist , though it is not clear whether the latter was distinct from the Kynegos Gate. The Balat Kapı has been variously identified as one of them, and as one of the three gates on the Golden Horn known as the Imperial Gate .
Further south was the Gate of the Phanarion , Turkish Fener Kapısı, named after the local light-tower (phanarion in Greek), which also gave its name to the local suburb
. The gate also marked the western entrance of the Petrion Fort , formed by a double stretch of walls between the Gate of the Phanarion and the Petrion Gate , in Turkish Petri Kapısı. According to Byzantine tradition, the area was named thus after Peter the Patrician
, a leading minister of Justinian I
(r. 527–565). A small gate of the western end of the fort's inner wall, near the Phanarion Gate, led to the city, and was called the Gate of Diplophanarion. It was at the Petrion Gate that the Venetians, under the personal leadership of Doge Enrico Dandolo
, scaled the walls and entered the city in the 1204 sack. In the 1453 siege however, an Ottoman attack on the same place was repelled.
The next gate, Yeni Ayakapı ("New Gate of the Saint"), is not Byzantine, unless it replaces an earlier Byzantine entrance. It was constructed by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in 1582. Shortly after it lies the older Ayakapı
("Gate of the Saint"), known in Greek as the St. Theodosia Gate after the great earby church of St. Theodosia (formerly identified with the Gül Mosque
). The next gate is that of Eis Pegas , known by Latin chroniclers as Porta Puteae or Porta del Pozzo, modern Cibali Kapısı. It was named so because it looked towards the quarter of Pegae on the other shore of the Golden Horn. Next was the now-demolished Gate of the Platea follows, rendered as Porta della Piazza by Italian chroniclers, and called in Turkish Unkapanı Kapısı ("Gate of the Flour Depot"). It was named after the local quarter of Plate[i]a ("broad place", signifying the broad shoreline at this place). The next gate, Ayazma Kapısı ("Gate of the Holy Well"), is in all probability an Ottoman-era structure.
The next gate is the Gate of the Drungarii
, modern Odunkapısı ("Wood Gate"). Its Byzantine name derives from the high official known as the Drungarius of the Vigla. It marked the western end of the Venetian quarter. It is followed by the Gate the Forerunner, known as St. John de Cornibus by the Latins, named after a nearby chapel. In Turkish it is known as Zindan Kapısı ("Dungeon Gate"). The destroyed Gate of the Perama lay in the suburb of Perama ("Crossing"), from which the ferry to Pera
(Galata) sailed. It marked the eastern limit of the Venetian quarter of the city, and the beginning of the Amalfi
tan quarter to its east. In Buondelmonti's map, it is labelled Porta Piscaria, on account of the fishmarket that used to be held there, a name that has been preserved in its modern Turkish appellation, Balıkpazarı Kapısı, "Gate of the Fish-market". This gate is also identified with the Gate of the Jews , Porta Hebraica in Latin sources, although the same name was apparently applied over time to other gates as well. In its vicinity was probably also the Gate of St. Mark, which is recorded in a single Venetian document of 1229. Its identity is unclear, as is the question whether the gate, conspicuously named in honour of the patron saint
of Venice, was pre-existing or opened after the fall of the city to the Crusaders in 1204.
To the east of the Perama Gate was the Hikanatissa Gate , a name perhaps derived from the imperial tagma
of the Hikanatoi
. The gate marked the eastern end of the Amalfi
tan quarter of the city and the western edge of the Pisa
n quarter. Further east lay the Gate of the Neorion , recorded as the Horaia Gate in late Byzantine and Ottoman times. As its names testifies, it led to the leading to the Neorion, the main harbour of ancient Byzantium
and the oldest naval arsenal of the city. In the early Ottoman period, it was known in Turkish as the Çıfıtkapı ("Hebrew Gate"), but its modern name is Bahçekapı ("Garden Gate"). The eastern limit of the Pisa
n quarter was located a bit eastwards of the gate.
The 12th-century Genoese quarter of the city extended from there to the east, and in the documents conferring privileges on them one finds mention of two gates: the Porta Bonu ("Gate of Bonus", probably transcribed from Greek ), and the Porta Veteris Rectoris ("Gate of the old rector
"). It is very likely that these two names refer to the same gate, probably named after an otherwise unknown rector Bonus, and located somewhere in the modern Sirkeci
district. Finally, the last gate of the Golden Horn wall was the Gate of Eugenius , leading to the Prosphorion harbour. In close proximity was the 4th-century Tower of Eugenius or Kentenarion, where the great chain that closed the entrance to the Golden Horn was kept and suspended from. The gate was also called Marmaroporta (Μαρμαροπόρτα, "Marble Gate"), because it was covered in marble, and featured a statue of the Emperor Julian
. It is usually identified with the Ottoman Yalıköşk Kapısı, and was destroyed in 1871.
of the city (modern Sarayburnu, Seraglio Point), south and west to the Marble Tower, the Propontis Wall and its gates went as follows:
The first gate, now demolished, was the Eastern Gate or Gate of St. Barbara after a nearby church, in Turkish Top Kapısı ("Gate of the Cannon"), from which Topkapı Palace
takes its name. Unique among the seaward gates, it was, like the Golden Gate, flanked by two large towers of white marble, which in 1816 was used to construct the nearby Marble Kiosk
of Sultan Mahmud II
. Twice it served as the entry-point for an emperor's triumphal return: in 1126, when John II Komnenos
returned from the recapture of his ancestral Kastamonu
, and in 1168, when Manuel I Komnenos
returned from his victorious campaign
against Hungary
.
Next was the gate known in Turkish as Değirmen Kapı ("Mill[stone] Gate"), whose Byzantine name is unknown. Close by and to its north stood the great Tower of Mangana, which was intended to hold the one end of the chain, planned (but probably never actually installed) by Manuel I Komnenos
to close off the Bosporus
, the other end being at a tower erected on the island of the modern Maiden's Tower (Kız Kulesi) off Chrysopolis (modern Üsküdar
), known as Damalis (Δάμαλις) or Arkla in Byzantine times. The next gate is now known as the Demirkapı ("Iron Gate"), and is an Ottoman-era structure. A Greek name is not known, and it is not known whether a gate stood there in Byzantine times. Behind these two gates extended the quarter of the Mangana (Μάγγανα, "Arsenal"), with its numerous monasteries, the most famous of which were those of St. George of Mangana, the Church of Christ Philanthropos, and of the Theotokos
Hodegetria
, and the Palace of Mangana. Four small posterns, in two pairs of two, stand at the southern edge of the Mangana quarter, and probably serviced the numerous churches. The names, but not the identity, of two of them have been recorded, the Postern of St. Lazarus , and the Small Gate of the Hodegetria , both named after the respective monasteries located near them. It is also probable that one of them is to be identified with the Postern of Michael the Protovestiarius .
Further south, at the point where the shore turns westwards, are two further gates, the Balıkhane Kapısı ("Gate of the Fish-House") and Ahırkapısı ("Stable Gate"). Their names derive from the buildings inside the Topkapı Palace they led to. Their Byzantine names are unknown. The next gate, on the southeastern corner of the city, was the gate of the imperial palace of the Bucoleon
, known in Byzantine times as the Gate of the Lion (Gk. Πόρτα Λέοντος, Porta Leontos, in Latin Porta Leonis) after the marble lions that flanked its entrance, as well as Gate of the Bear after depictions of that animal at the quay. In Turkish it is known as Çatladıkapı ("Broken Gate").
To the west of the Bucoleon Palace lies the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus
, and the first of the harbours of the city's southern shore, that of the Sophiae, named after the wife
of Emperor Justin II
(r. 565–578) and known originally as the Port of Julian
. A small postern is situated in front of the church, while the first larger gate, the Gate of the Sophiae or Iron Gate , opened to the harbour. In Turkish, it is known as Kadırgalimanı Kapısı, "Gate of the Harbour of the Galleys". Next was the Gate of Kontoskalion , modern Kumkapısı ("Sand Gate"), which opened to the late Byzantine harbour of the same name, intended to replace the long silted-up Harbour of the Sophiae.
The next harbour to the west is the large Harbour of Eleutherius or Theodosius, in the area known as Vlanga. The harbours are now silted up and known as the Langa Bostan park. Immediately before it to the east stands the gate known in Turkish as the Yenikapı
("New Gate"). A Latin inscription commemorates its repair after the 447 earthquake It is usually identified with the Jewish Gate of late Byzantine times. Immediately to the west after the harbour lies the next gate, Davutpaşa Kapısı ("Gate of Davut Pasha"), usually identified with the Gate of Saint Aemilianus , which is known to have stood at the junction of the sea wall with the city's original Constantinian Wall. That view however is disputed by Janin, as the junction of the walls occurred considerably to the west from the modern gate's location.
Further to the west, where the shoreline turns sharply south, stood the Gate of Psamathia , modern Samatya Kapısı, leading to the suburb
of the same name. Further south and west lies the gate known today as Narlıkapı ("Pomegranate Gate"). Its Byzantine name is unknown, but is prominent on account of its proximity to the famed Monastery of St John the Studite.
In the early centuries, the imperial guard consisted of the units of the Excubitores
and Scholae Palatinae
, which by the late 7th century had declined to parade-ground troops. At about that time Justinian II
established the first new guards units to protect the imperial palace precinct, while in the 8th century the emperors, faced with successive revolts by the thematic armies and pursuing deeply unpopular iconoclastic policies, established the imperial tagmata
as an elite force loyal to them. As the tagmata were often used to form the core of imperial expeditionary armies, they were not always present in or near the city. Only two of them, the Noumeroi and the Teicheiōtai, the palace guard units established by Justinian II, remained permanently stationed in Constantinople, garrisoned around the palace district
or in various locations, such as disused churches, in the capital. The units present in the city at any one time were thus never very numerous, numbering a few thousands at best, but they were complemented by several detachments stationed around the capital, in Thrace and Bithynia
.
The small size of the city's garrison was due to the uneasiness of emperors and populace alike towards a permanent large military force, both for fear of a military uprising and because of the considerable financial burden its maintenance would entail. Furthermore, a large force was largely unnecessary, because of the inherent security provided by the city walls themselves. As historian John Haldon notes, "providing the gates were secured and the defenses provided with a skeleton force, the City was safe against even very large forces in the pre-gunpowder period."
_by_florentine_cartographer_cristoforo_buondelmonte.jpg)
Several fortifications were built at various periods in the vicinity of Constantinople, forming part of its defensive system. The first and greatest of these is the 56 km long Anastasian Wall
(Gk. , teichos Anastasiakon) or Long Wall , built in the mid-5th century as an outer defence to Constantinople, some 65 km westwards of the city. It was 3.30 m thick and over 5 m high, but its effectiveness was apparently limited, and it was abandoned at some time in the 7th century for want of resources to maintain and men to garrison it. For centuries thereafter, its materials were used in local buildings, but several parts, especially in the remoter central and northern sections, are still extant.
In addition, between the Anastasian Wall and the city itself, there were several small towns and fortresses like Selymbria, Rhegion or the great suburb of Hebdomon ("Seventh", modern Bakırköy
, so named from its distance of seven Roman miles from the city walls), the site of major military encampments. Beyond the Long Walls, the towns of Bizye
and Arcadiopolis covered the northern approaches. These localities were strategically situated along the main routes to the city, and formed the outer defenses of Constantinople throughout its history, serving to muster forces, confront enemy invasions or at least buy time for the capital's defenses to be brought in order. It is notable that during the final Ottoman siege, several of them, such as Selymbria, surrendered only after the fall of Constantinople itself. In Asia Minor, their role was mirrored by the cities of Nicaea and Nicomedia
, and the large field camp at Malagina
.
, then the suburb of Sykai, was an integral part of the city by the early 5th century: the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae
of ca. 425 names it as the city's 13th region. It was probably fortified with walls in the 5th century, and under Justinian I
it was granted the status of a city. The settlement declined and disappeared after the 7th century, leaving only the great tower
(the kastellion tou Galatou) in modern Karaköy, that guarded the chain extending across the mouth of the Golden Horn. After the sack of the city in 1204, Galata became a Venetian quarter, and later a Genoese
extraterritorial colony, effectively outside Byzantine control. Despite Byzantine opposition, the Genoese managed to surround their quarter with a moat, and by joining their castle-like houses with walls they created the first wall around the colony. The Galata Tower
, then called Christea Turris ("Tower of Christ"), and another stretch of walls to its north were built in 1349. Further expansions followed in 1387, 1397 and 1404, enclosing an area larger than that originally allocated to them, stretching from the modern district of Azapkapı north to Şişhane, from there to Tophane and thence to Karaköy. After the Ottoman conquest, the walls were maintained until the 1870s, when most were demolished to facilitate the expansion of the city. Today only the Galata Tower, visible from most of historical Constantinople, remains intact, along with several smaller fragments.
and Rumelihisarı
lie to the north of Constantinople, at the narrowest point of the Bosporus
. They were built by the Ottomans
to control this strategically vital waterway in preparation for their final assault on Constantinople. Anadoluhisarı (Turkish for "Fortress of Anatolia
"), also called Akçehisar and Güzelcehisar ("beautiful fortress") in earlier times, was constructed by Sultan Bayezid I
in 1394, and initially consisted of just a 25 m high, roughly pentagonal watchtower surrounded by a wall. The much larger and more elaborate Rumelihisarı ("Fortress of Rumeli") was built by Sultan Mehmed II
in just over four months in 1452. It consists of three large and one small towers, connected by a wall reinforced with 13 small watchtowers. With cannons mounted on its main towers, the fort gave the Ottomans complete control of the passage of ships through Bosporus, a role evoked clearly in its original name, Boğazkesen ("cutter of the strait"). After the conquest of Constantinople, it served as a customs checkpoint and a prison, notably for the embassies of states that were at war with the Empire. After suffering extensive damage in the 1509 earthquake, it was repaired, and was used continuously until the late 19th century.
Defensive wall
A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements...
that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
(today Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
) since its founding as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
system of antiquity
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, when well manned, they were almost impregnable for any medieval besieger, saving the city, and the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
with it, during sieges from the Avars
Eurasian Avars
The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...
, Arabs, Rus', and Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
, among others (see Sieges of Constantinople
Sieges of Constantinople
There were several sieges of Constantinople during the history of the Byzantine Empire. Two of them resulted in the capture of Constantinople from Byzantine rule: in 1204 by Crusaders, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II....
). The advent of gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
siege cannons rendered the fortifications vulnerable, leading to the fall of Constantinople
Fall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI...
to the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
on 29 May 1453 after a prolonged siege.
The walls were largely maintained intact during most of the Ottoman period, until sections began to be dismantled in the 19th century, as the city outgrew its medieval boundaries. Despite the subsequent lack of maintenance, many parts of the walls survived and are still standing today. A large-scale restoration programme has been under way since the 1980s, which allows the visitor to appreciate their original appearance.
Walls of Greek and Roman Byzantium
According to tradition, the city was founded as ByzantiumByzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
by Greek colonists from Megara
Megara
Megara is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King...
, led by the eponymous Byzas
Byzas
In Greek legend, Byzas was the eponymous founder of Byzantium , the city later known as Constantinople and Istanbul.-Founding of Byzantium:...
, around 658 BC. At the time the city consisted of a small region around an acropolis
Acropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
, located on the easternmost hill (corresponding to the modern site of the Topkapi Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
). According to the late Byzantine Patria of Constantinople
Patria of Constantinople
The Patria of Constantinople , also known by the Latin name Scriptores originum Constantinopolitarum , is a Byzantine collection of historical works on the history and monuments of the Byzantine imperial capital of Constantinople .Although in the past attributed to the 14th-century writer George...
, ancient Byzantium was enclosed by a small wall, which began on the northern edge of the acropolis, extended west to the Tower of Eugenios, then went south and west towards the Strategion and the Baths of Achilles, continued south to the area known in Byzantine times as Chalkoprateia, and then turned, in the area of the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
, in a loop towards the northeast, crossed the regions known as Topoi and Arcadianae and reached the sea at the later quarter of Mangana. This wall was protected by 27 towers, and had at least two landward gates, one which survived to become known as the Arch of Urbicius, and one where the Milion monument was later located. On the seaward side, the wall was much lower. Although the author of the Patria asserts that this wall dated to the time of Byzas, the French researcher Raymond Janin thinks it more likely that it reflects the situation after the city was rebuilt by the Spartan general Pausanias
Pausanias (general)
Pausanias was a Spartan general of the 5th century BC. He was the son of Cleombrotus and nephew of Leonidas I, serving as regent after the latter's death, since Leonidas' son Pleistarchus was still under-age. Pausanias was also the father of Pleistoanax, who later became king, and Cleomenes...
, who conquered the city in 479 BC. This wall is known to have been repaired, utilising tomb stones, under the leadership of a certain Leo in 340 BC, against an attack by Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon "friend" + ἵππος "horse" — transliterated ; 382 – 336 BC), was a king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.-Biography:...
.
Byzantium was relatively unimportant during the early Roman period. Contemporaries described it as wealthy, well-peopled and well-fortified, but this affluence came at an end due to its support for Pescennius Niger
Pescennius Niger
Pescennius Niger was a Roman usurper from 193 to 194 during the Year of the Five Emperors. He claimed the imperial throne in response to the murder of Pertinax and the elevation of Didius Julianus, but was defeated by a rival claimant, Septimius Severus and killed while attempting to flee from...
(r. 193–194) in his war against Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...
(r. 193–211). According to the account of Dio Cassius
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
(Roman History, 75.10-14), the city held out against Severan forces for three years, until 196, with its inhabitants resorting even to throwing bronze statues to the besiegers when they ran out of other projectiles. Severus punished the city harshly: the strong walls were demolished and the city was deprived of its civic status, being reduced to a mere village dependent on Heraclea Perinthus. However, appreciating the city's strategic importance, Severus eventually rebuilt it and endowed it with many monuments, including a Hippodrome
Hippodrome of Constantinople
The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with only a few fragments of the original structure surviving...
and the Baths of Zeuxippos, as well as a new set of walls, located some 300–400 m to the west of the old ones. Little is known of the Severan Wall save for a short description of its course by Zosimus
Zosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
(New History, II.30.2-4) and that its main gate was located at the end of a portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
ed avenue (the first part of the later Mese
Mese (Constantinople)
The Mese was the main thoroughfare of ancient Constantinople . The street was the main scene of Byzantine imperial processions. Its ancient course is largely followed by the modern Divanyolu Avenue.- Description :...
) and shortly before the entrance of the later Forum of Constantine
Forum of Constantine
The Forum of Constantine was built at the foundation of Constantinople immediately outside of the old city walls of Byzantium. It was circular in shape and had two monumental gates to the east and west...
. The wall seems to have extended from near the modern Galata Bridge
Galata Bridge
The Galata Bridge is a bridge that spans the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey. From the end of the 19th century in particular, the bridge has featured in Turkish literature, theater, poetry and novels.-History:...
in the Eminönü
Eminönü
Eminönü is a former district of Istanbul in Turkey, now a neighbourhood of Fatih district. This is the heart of the walled city of Constantine, the focus of a history of incredible richness. Eminönü covers the point on which the Byzantine capital was built. The Galata Bridge crosses the Golden Horn...
quarter south through the vicinity of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque
Nuruosmaniye Mosque
The Nuruosmaniye Mosque is an Ottoman mosque located in the Çemberlitaş neighbourhood of Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey. It is considered one of the finest examples of mosques in Ottoman Baroque style. It was built by architects Mustafa Ağa and Simon Kalfa from the order of Sultan Mahmut I and...
to curve around the southern wall of the Hippodrome, and then going northeast to meet the old walls near the Bosporus. The Patria also mention the existence of another wall during the siege of Byzantium by Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) during the latter's conflict with Licinius
Licinius
Licinius I , was Roman Emperor from 308 to 324. Co-author of the Edict of Milan that granted official toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire, for the majority of his reign he was the rival of Constantine I...
(r. 308–324), in 324. The text mentions that a fore-wall (proteichisma) was running near the Philadephion, located at about the middle of the later, Constantinian city, suggesting the expansion of the city beyond the Severan Wall by this time.
Wall of Constantine
Like Severus before him, Constantine began to punish the city for siding with his defeated rival, but soon he too realized the advantages of Byzantium's location. During 324–336 the city was thoroughly rebuilt and inaugurated on 11 May 330 under the name of "Second Rome". The name that eventually prevailed in common usage however was Constantinople, the "City of Constantine" (Gk. Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoupolis). The city of Constantine was protected by a new wall about 2.8 km (15 stadia) west of the Severan wall. Constantine's fortification consisted of a single wall, reinforced with towers at regular distances, which began to be constructed in 324 and was completed under his son Constantius IIConstantius II
Constantius II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death....
(r. 337–361). Only the approximate course of the wall is known: it began at the Church of St. Anthony at the Golden Horn, near the modern Atatürk Bridge, ran southwest and then southwards, passed east of the great open cisterns of Mocius and Aspar, and ended near the Church of the Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
of the Rhabdos on the Propontis coast, somewhere between the later sea gates of St. Aemilianus and Psamathos.
Already by the early 5th century however, Constantinople had expanded outside the Constantinian Wall, in the extramural area known as the Exokionion or Exakionion. The wall survived during much of the Byzantine period, even though it was replaced by the Theodosian Walls as the city's primary defence. An ambiguous passage refers to extensive damage to the city's "inner wall" from an earthquake on 25 September 478, which likely refers to the Constantinian wall, and Theophanes the Confessor
Theophanes the Confessor
Saint Theophanes Confessor was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicler. He is venerated on March 12 in the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church .-Biography:Theophanes was born in Constantinople of wealthy and noble iconodule parents: Isaac,...
reports renewed earthquake damage in 557
557 Constantinople earthquake
The 557 Constantinople earthquake occurred at night on 14 December. This great earthquake caused much damage to Constantinople. The event is described by Agathias, John Malalas and Theophanes the Confessor. - Prior events :...
. It appears that large parts survived relatively intact until the 9th century: the 11th-century historian Kedrenos
Kedrenos
George Kedrenos or Cedrenus was a Byzantine historian. In the 1050s he compiled A concise history of the world, which spanned the time from the biblical account of creation to his own day. Kedrenos is one of the few sources that discuss Khazar polities in existence after the sack of Atil in 969...
records that the "wall at Exokionion", likely a portion of the Constantinian wall, collapsed in an earthquake in 867. Only traces of the wall appear to have survived in later ages, although Van Millingen
Alexander van Millingen
Alexander van Millingen was a scholar in the field of Byzantine architecture, and a professor of history at Robert College, Istanbul between 1879 and 1915. His works are now public domain in many jurisdictions.-External links:...
states that some parts survived in the region of the İsakapı until the early 19th century.
Gates
The names of a number of gates of the Constantinian Wall survive, but scholars debate their identity and exact location.The Old Golden Gate , known also as the Xerolophos Gate and the Gate of Saturninus, is mentioned in the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae
Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae
The Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae is an ancient "regionary", i.e., a list of monuments, public buildings and civil officials in Constantinople during the mid-5th century , during the reign of the emperor Theodosius II...
, which further states that the city wall itself in the region around it was "ornately decorated". The gate stood somewhere on the southern slopes of the Seventh Hill. Its construction is often attributed to Constantine, but is in fact of uncertain age. It survived until the 14th century, when the Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras
Manuel Chrysoloras
Manuel Chrysoloras was a pioneer in the introduction of Greek literature to Western Europe during the late middle ages....
described it as being built of "wide marble blocks with a lofty opening", and crowned by a kind of stoa
Stoa
Stoa in Ancient Greek architecture; covered walkways or porticos, commonly for public usage. Early stoae were open at the entrance with columns, usually of the Doric order, lining the side of the building; they created a safe, enveloping, protective atmosphere.Later examples were built as two...
. In late Byzantine times, a painting of the Crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
was allegedly placed on the gate, leading to its later Ottoman name, İsakapı ("Gate of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
"). It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1509, but its approximate location is known through the presence of the nearby İsakapı Mescidi mosque.
The identity and location of the Gate of At[t]alos are unclear. Cyril Mango identifies it with the Old Golden Gate; van Millingen places it on the Seventh Hill, at a height probably corresponding to one of the later gates of the Theodosian Wall in that area; and Raymond Janin places it further north, across the Lycus and near the point where the river passed under the wall. In earlier centuries, it was decorated with many statues, including one of Constantine, which fell down in an earthquake in 740.
The only gate whose location is known with certainty, aside from the Old Golden Gate, is the Gate of Saint Aemilianus , named in Turkish Davutpaşa Kapısı. It lay at the juncture with the sea walls, and served the communication with the coast. According to the Chronicon Paschale
Chronicon Paschale
Chronicon Paschale is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian chronicle of the world...
, the Church of St Mary of Rhabdos, where the rod of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
was kept, stood next to the gate.
The Old Gate of the Prodromos , named after the nearby Church of St John the Baptist (called Prodromos, "the Forerunner", in Greek), is another unclear case. Van Millingen identifies it with the Old Golden Gate, while Janin considers it to have been located on the northern slope of the Seventh Hill.
The last known gate is the Gate of Melantias , whose location is also debated. Van Millingen considered it to be a gate of the Theodosian Wall (the Pege Gate), while more recently, Janin and Mango have refuted this, suggesting that it was located on the Constantinian Wall. Again however, while Mango identifies it with the Gate of the Prodromos, Janin considers the name to have been a corruption of the ta Meltiadou quarter, and places the gate to the west of the Mocius cistern. Other authors identified it with the Gate of Adrianople (A.M. Schneider) or with the Gate of Rhesios (A.J. Mordtmann).
Theodosian Walls
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
(r. 408–450), after whom it was named. The work was carried out under the direction of Anthemius
Anthemius (praetorian prefect)
Flavius Anthemius was a high-ranking official of the late Roman Empire. He is notable as a Praetorian prefect of the East and effective regent of the Eastern Roman Empire during the later reign of Arcadius and the first years of Theodosius II, as well as for the construction of the first set of...
, the praetorian prefect of the East
Praetorian prefecture of the East
The praetorian prefecture of the East or of Oriens was one of four large praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided...
, and was finished in 413 according to a law in the Codex Theodosianus
Codex Theodosianus
The Codex Theodosianus was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Theodosius II in 429 and the compilation was published in the eastern half of the Roman Empire in 438...
. An inscription discovered in 1993 however records that the work lasted for nine years, indicating that construction had already begun ca. 404/405, in the reign of Emperor Arcadius
Arcadius
Arcadius was the Byzantine Emperor from 395 to his death. He was the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the Western Emperor Honorius...
(r. 395–408). New Rome now enclosed seven hills and justified the appellation Heptalophos , in imitation of Elder Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. On 26 January 447 however, a powerful earthquake destroyed large parts of the wall, including 57 towers. Subsequent earthquakes, including another major one in January 448, compounded the damage. Theodosius II ordered the praetorian prefect Constantine
Constantine (consul 457)
Flavius Constantinus was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire, consul and three times praetorian prefect of the East.- Life :...
to supervise the repairs, made all the more urgent as the city was threatened by the presence of Attila the Hun
Attila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...
in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. Employing the city's dēmoi (the "Circus
Hippodrome of Constantinople
The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with only a few fragments of the original structure surviving...
factions") in the work, the walls were restored in a record 60 days, according to the Byzantine chroniclers and inscriptions found in situ. Based on some inscriptions, some scholars also suggested that at this point, the second outer wall was added, and a wide ditch
Ditch (fortification)
A ditch in military engineering is an obstacle, designed to slow down or break up an attacking force, while a trench is intended to provide cover to the defenders...
opened in front of the walls, but the validity of this interpretation is questionable; the outer wall was probably an integral part of the original fortification concept. Throughout their history, the walls were damaged by earthquakes, and repairs were undertaken on numerous occasions, as testified by the numerous inscriptions commemorating the emperors or their servants who undertook to restore them.
Course and topography
The walls stretched for about 6,5 km from south to north, from the Marble Tower , also known as the Tower of BasilBasil II
Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...
and Constantine
Constantine VIII
Constantine VIII was reigning Byzantine emperor from December 15, 1025 until his death. He was the son of the Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, and the younger brother of the eminent Basil II, who died childless and thus left the rule of the Byzantine Empire in his hands.-Family:As...
(Gk. Pyrgos Basileiou kai Kōnstantinou) on the Propontis coast to the Golden Horn
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
. The total length of the surviving walls is 5,630 m, from the Sea of Marmara
Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...
to the suburb of Blachernae
Blachernae
Blachernae was a suburb in the northwestern section of Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. It was the site of a spring and a number of prominent churches were built there, most notably the great Church of St. Mary of Blachernae , built by Empress Pulcheria in circa 450,...
near the Golden Horn
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
, while the section between the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus , known in Turkish as the Tekfur Sarayı , is a 13th-century Byzantine palace in the north-western part of the old city of Constantinople...
(known in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
as Tekfur Sarayı) and the Golden Horn does not survive, since the line of the walls was later brought forward to cover the suburb of Blachernae
Blachernae
Blachernae was a suburb in the northwestern section of Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. It was the site of a spring and a number of prominent churches were built there, most notably the great Church of St. Mary of Blachernae , built by Empress Pulcheria in circa 450,...
.
From the Sea of Marmara, the wall turns sharply to the northeast, until it reaches the Golden Gate, at about 14 m above sea level. From there and until the Gate of Rhegion (modern Mevlevihane Kapısı) the wall follows a more or less straight line to the north, climbing the city's Seventh Hill. From there the wall turns sharply to the northeast, climbing up to the Gate of St. Romanus, located near the peak of the Seventh Hill at some 68 m above sea level. From there the wall descends into the valley of the river Lycus, where it reaches its lowest point at 35 m above sea level. Climbing the slope of the Sixth Hill, the wall then rises up to the Gate of Charisius or Gate of Adrianople, at some 76 m height. This stretch of wall, between the gates of St. Romanus and Charisius, ca. 1,250 m in length, the so-called Mesoteichion (Μεσοτείχιον, "Middle Wall"), is the weakest part of the walls because of the morphology of the ground. Consequently, in most sieges of the city, this area was the focus of the main assault, albeit only in 1453 with success. From the Gate of Adrianople to the Blachernae, the walls fall to a level of some 60 m. From there the later walls of Blachernae project sharply to the west, reaching the coastal plain at the Golden Horn near the so-called Prisons of Anemas.
Construction
The Theodosian Walls consisted of the main Inner Wall (μέγα τείχος, mega teichos, "great wall"), separated from the lower Outer Wall by a 15–20 m wide terrace, the peribolos (περίβολος). Between the outer wall and the moat (σούδα, souda) there stretched an outer terrace, the parateichion (παρατείχιον), while a low breastwork crowned the moat's eastern escarpment.The inner wall is a solid structure, 5 m thick and 12 m high. It is faced with carefully cut limestone blocks, while its core is filled with mortar made of lime and crushed bricks. Between seven and eleven bands of brick
Roman brick
Roman brick can refer either to a type of brick originating in Ancient Rome and spread by the Romans to the lands they conquered; or to a modern type of brick, inspired by the ancient prototypes...
, ca. 40 cm thick, traverse the structure, not only as a form of decoration, but also strengthening the cohesion of the structure by bonding the stone façade with the mortar core, and increasing endurance to earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s. The wall was strengthened with 96 towers, mainly square but also a few octagonal ones, three hexagonal and a single pentagonal one. They were 18–20 meters tall, and placed at intervals of 55 meters. Each tower had a battlemented terrace on the top. Its interior was usually divided by a floor into two chambers, which did not communicate with each other. The lower chamber, which opened through the main wall to the city, was used for storage, while the upper one could be entered from the wall's walkway, and had windows for view and for firing projectiles. Access to the wall was provided by large ramps along their side. The lower floor could also be accessed from the peribolos by small posterns. Generally speaking, most of the surviving towers have been rebuilt either in Byzantine or in Ottoman times, and only the foundations of some are of original Theodosian construction. Furthermore, while until the Komnenian period the reconstructions largely remained true to the original model, later modifications ignored the windows and embrasures on the upper store and focused on the tower terrace as the sole fighting platform.
Postern
A postern is a secondary door or gate, particularly in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location, allowing the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing...
s on the base of the Inner Wall's towers. The Outer Wall likewise had 96 towers, square or crescent-shaped, situated midway between the Inner Wall's towers, and acting in supporting role to them. They featured a room with windows on the level of the peribolos, crowned by a battlemented terrace, while their lower portions were either solid or featured small posterns, which allowed access to the outer terrace. The Outer Wall was a formidable defensive edifice in its own right: in the sieges of 1422 and 1453, the Byzantines and their allies, being too few to hold both lines of wall, concentrated on the defence of the outer wall.
The moat was situated at a distance of about 20 m from the outer wall, creating a terrace called parateichion , where a paved road ran along the walls' length. The moat itself was over 20 m wide and 10 m deep, featuring a 1.5 m tall crenellated wall on the inner side, serving as a first line of defence. Transverse walls cross the moat, tapering towards the top so as not to be used as bridges. Some of them have been shown to contain pipes carrying water into the city from the hill country to the city's north and west. Their role has therefore been interpreted as that of aqueducts for filling the moat and as dams dividing it into compartments and allowing the water to be retained over the course of the walls. However, there is little direct evidence in the accounts of the city's sieges to suggest that the moat was ever actually flooded.
Gates
The wall contained nine main gates, which pierced both the Inner and the Outer walls, and a number of smaller posternPostern
A postern is a secondary door or gate, particularly in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location, allowing the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing...
s. The exact identification of several gates is a debatable, for a number of reasons. The Byzantine chroniclers provide more names than the number of the gates, the original Greek names fell mostly out of use during the Ottoman period, and literary and archaeological sources provide often contradictory information. Only three gates, the Golden Gate, the Gate of Rhesion and the Gate of Charisius, can be established directly from the literary evidence.
In the traditional nomenclature, established by Philipp Anton Dethier in 1873, the gates are distinguished into the "Public Gates" and the "Military Gates", which alternated over the course of the walls. According to Dethier's theory, the former were given names and were open to civilian traffic, leading across the moat on bridges, while the latter were known by numbers, restricted to military use, and only led to the outer sections of the walls. Today however, this division is, if at all, retained only as a historiographical convention. First, there is sufficient reason to believe that several of the "Military Gates" were also used by civilian traffic. In addition, a number of them have proper names, and the established sequence of numbering them, based on their perceived correspondence with the names of certain city quarters lying between the Constantinian and Theodosian walls which have numerical origins, has been shown to be erroneous: for instance, the Deuteron, the "Second" quarter, was not located in the southwest behind the Gate of the Deuteron or "Second Military Gate" as would be expected, but in the northwestern part of the city.
Golden Gate and the Yedikule Fortress
Following the walls from south to north, the Golden Gate , is the first gate to be encountered. It was main ceremonial entrance into the capital, used especially for the occasions of a triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
al entry of an emperor into the capital on the occasion of military victories or other state occasions such as coronations. On rare occasions, as a mark of honor, the entry through the gate was allowed to non-imperial visitors: papal legate
Papal legate
A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
s (in 519 and 868) and, in 710, to Pope Constantine
Pope Constantine
Pope Constantine was pope from 708 to 715. With the exception of Antipope Constantine, he was the only pope to take such a "quintessentially" Eastern name of an emperor...
. The Gate was used for triumphal entries until the Komnenian period; thereafter, the only such occasion was the entry of Michael VIII Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus reigned as Byzantine Emperor 1259–1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453...
into the city on 15 August 1261, after its reconquest from the Latins
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...
. With the progressive decline in Byzantium's military fortunes, the gates were walled up and reduced in size in the later Palaiologan period, and the complex converted into a citadel and refuge. The Golden Gate was emulated elsewhere, with several cities naming their principal entrance thus, for instance Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
(also known as the Vardar Gate) or Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
(the Gate of Daphne), as well as the Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
, who built monumental "Golden Gates" at Kiev
Golden Gate (Kiev)
The Golden Gates of Kiev is a major landmark of the Ancient Kiev and historic gateway in the ancient city fortress, located in the capital of Ukraine. Currently it serves as a museum and can be found on the corner of Volodymyr street and Yaroslaviv Val Street...
and Vladimir
Golden Gate (Vladimir)
The Golden Gates of Vladimir , constructed between 1158 and 1164, are the only preserved instance of the ancient Russian city gates. A museum inside focuses on the history of the Mongol invasion of Russia in the 13th century....
.
The date of the gate's construction is uncertain, with scholars divided between Theodosius I
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
and Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
. Earlier scholars favored the former, but the current majority view tends to the latter, meaning that the gate was constructed as an integral part of the Theodosian Walls. The debate has been carried over to an Latin inscription in metal letters, now lost, which stood above the doors and commemorated their gilding in celebration of the defeat of an unnamed usurper:
(English Translation)
Curiously, the legend has not been reported by any Byzantine author. However, an investigation of the surviving holes wherein the metal letters were riveted verified its accuracy. It also showed that the first line stood on the western face of the arch, while the second on the eastern. According to the current view, this refers to the usurper Joannes
Joannes
Ioannes, known in English as Joannes, was a Roman usurper against Valentinian III.On the death of the Emperor Honorius , Theodosius II, the remaining ruler of the House of Theodosius hesitated in announcing his uncle's death...
(r. 423–425), while according to the supporters of the traditional view, it indicates the gate's construction as a free-standing triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...
in 388–391 to commemorate the defeat of the usurper Magnus Maximus
Magnus Maximus
Magnus Maximus , also known as Maximianus and Macsen Wledig in Welsh, was Western Roman Emperor from 383 to 388. As commander of Britain, he usurped the throne against Emperor Gratian in 383...
(r. 385–388), and which was only later incorporated into the Theodosian Walls.
The gate, built of large square blocks of polished white marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
fitted together without cement, has the form of a triumphal arch with three arched gates, the middle one larger than the two others. The gate is flanked by large square towers, which form the 9th and 10th towers of the inner Theodosian wall. With the exception of the central portal, the gate remained open to everyday traffic. The structure was richly decorated with numerous statues, including a statue of Theodosius I on an elephant-drawn quadriga
Quadriga
A quadriga is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast . It was raced in the Ancient Olympic Games and other contests. It is represented in profile as the chariot of gods and heroes on Greek vases and in bas-relief. The quadriga was adopted in ancient Roman chariot racing...
on top, echoing the Porta Triumphalis of Rome, which survived until it fell down in an earthquake in 740. Other sculptures were a large cross, which fell in an earthquake in 561 or 562; a Victory
Victoria (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the personified goddess of victory. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike, and was associated with Bellona. She was adapted from the Sabine agricultural goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the Palatine Hill...
, which was cast down in the reign of Michael III
Michael III
Michael III , , Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian-Phrygian Dynasty...
; and a crowned Fortune
Fortuna
Fortuna can mean:*Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck -Geographical:*19 Fortuna, asteroid*Fortuna, California, town located on the north coast of California*Fortuna, United States Virgin Islands...
of the City. In 965, Nikephoros II Phokas installed the captured bronze city gates of Mopsuestia
Mopsuestia
Mopsuestia , later Mamistra, is the ancient city of Cilicia Campestris on the Pyramus river located approximately 20 km east of ancient Antiochia in Cilicia .The founding of this city is attributed in legend to the soothsayer, Mopsus, who lived before the Trojan war, although...
in the place of the original ones.
The main gate itself was covered by an outer wall, pierced by a single gate, which in later centuries was flanked by an ensemble of reused
Spolia
Spolia is a modern art-historical term used to describe the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments...
marble reliefs. According to descriptions of Pierre Gilles and English travelers from the 17th century, these reliefs were arranged in two tiers, and featured mythological scenes, including the Labours of Hercules. These reliefs, lost since the 17th century with the exception of some fragments now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, were probably put in place in the 9th or 10th centuries to form the appearance of a triumphal gate. According to other descriptions, the outer gate was also topped by a statue of Victory
Victoria (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the personified goddess of victory. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike, and was associated with Bellona. She was adapted from the Sabine agricultural goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the Palatine Hill...
, holding a crown.
Despite its ceremonial role, the Golden Gate was one of the stronger positions along the walls of the city, withstanding several attacks during the various sieges. With the addition of transverse walls on the peribolos between the inner and outer walls, it formed a virtually separate fortress. Its military value was recognized by John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus was the Byzantine emperor from 1347 to 1354.-Early life:Born in Constantinople, John Kantakouzenos was the son of a Michael Kantakouzenos, governor of the Morea. Through his mother Theodora Palaiologina Angelina, he was a descendant of the reigning house of...
(r. 1347–1354), who records that it was virtually impregnable, capable of holding provisions for three years and defying the whole city if need be. He repaired the marble towers and garrisoned the fort with loyal Catalan soldiers, but had to surrender it to John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos was a Byzantine emperor, who succeeded his father in 1341, at age nine.-Biography:...
(r. 1341–1391) when he abdicated in 1354. John V undid Kantakouzenos' repairs and left it unguarded, but in 1389–90 he too rebuilt and expanded the fortress, erecting two towers behind the gate and extending a wall some 350 m to the sea walls, thus forming a separate fortified enceinte inside the city to serve as a final refuge. In the event, John V was soon after forced to flee there from a coup led by his grandson, John VII
John VII Palaiologos
John VII Palaiologos was Byzantine Emperor for five months in 1390.-Life:...
. The fort held out successfully in the subsequent siege that lasted several months, and in which cannons were possibly employed. In 1391 however, John V was compelled to raze the fort by Sultan Bayezid I
Bayezid I
Bayezid I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1389 to 1402. He was the son of Murad I and Valide Sultan Gülçiçek Hatun.-Biography:Bayezid was born in Edirne and spent his youth in Bursa, where he received a high-level education...
(r. 1382–1402), who otherwise threatened to blind his son Manuel
Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine Emperor from 1391 to 1425.-Life:...
, whom he held captive. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos
John VIII Palaiologos
John VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus , was the penultimate reigning Byzantine Emperor, ruling from 1425 to 1448.-Life:John VIII Palaiologos was the eldest son of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš, the daughter of the Serbian prince Constantine Dragaš...
(r. 1425–1448) attempted to rebuild it in 1434, but was thwarted by Sultan Murad II
Murad II
Murad II Kodja was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1421 to 1451 ....
.
Osman II
Sultan Osman II or Othman II was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1618 until his death on 20 May 1622...
, who was imprisoned and executed there by the Janissaries in 1622. The last Emperor of Trebizond, David Megas Komnenos, Constantin Brâncoveanu
Constantin Brâncoveanu
Constantin Brâncoveanu was Prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714.-Ascension:A descendant of the Craioveşti boyar family and related to Matei Basarab, Brâncoveanu was born at the estate of Brâncoveni and raised in the house of his uncle, stolnic Constantin Cantacuzino...
of Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
with his family, King Simon I
Simon I of Kartli
Simon I also known as Svimon , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a Georgian king of Kartli from 1556 to 1569 and again from 1578 to 1599...
of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
and a number of leading Ottoman pasha
Pasha
Pasha or pascha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in...
s were also among those executed there. During the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, the fortress was the prison of many French prisoners, including the writer and diplomat Francois Pouqueville
Francois Pouqueville
François Charles Hugues Laurent Pouqueville was a French diplomat, writer, explorer, physician and historian, member of the ....
, who was detained there for more than two years (1799 to 1801) and who gave an extensive description of the fortress in his Voyage en Morée, à Constantinople, en Albanie, et dans plusieurs autres parties de l'Empire Othoman, pendant les années 1798, 1799, 1800 et 1801. The last prisoner was held in the Yedikule as late as 1837. Except for the initial 11 and last 4 sentences, all of the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Ivo Andrić
Ivo Andric
Ivan "Ivo" Andrić was a Yugoslav novelist, short story writer, and the 1961 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire...
's novel Prokleta avlija (translated into English as Accursed and/or Damned Yard) happens in Yedikule Prison (link on the Andrić Foundation site).
A masjid (small mosque) and a fountain were built in the middle of the fort's inner courtyard, which also contained the houses of the garrison, forming a separate city quarter. The houses were torn down in the 19th century, and a girls' school was built in their place. The outer gate was re-opened in 1838, and the fort's towers functioned as gunpowder magazines for a while thereafter, until the whole facility was turned over to become a museum in 1895. An open-air theater has been built in more recent years, and is used for cultural festivals. Like its namesake in Jerusalem, the way to the Golden Gate is now obstructed by a Muslim cemetery.
According to Greek legend, when the Ottomans entered the city, an angel rescued the emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, turned him into marble and placed him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate, where he waits to be brought to life again
King in the mountain
A king in the mountain, king under the mountain or sleeping hero is a prominent motif in folklore and mythology that is found in many folktales and legends...
to conquer the city back for Christians.
Second Military Gate
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
) outside the walls. According to a story related by Niketas Choniates, in 1189 the gate was walled off by Emperor Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204....
, because according to a prophecy, it was this gate that Western Emperor Frederick Barbarossa would enter the city through. It was re-opened in 1346, but closed again before the siege of 1453 and remained closed until 1886, leading to its early Ottoman name, Kapalı Kapı ("Closed Gate"). Its is known today as the Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
Gate (Belgrat Kapısı), after the Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
artisans settled there by Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent after he conquered Belgrade in 1521. Note that this gate does not open directly to the road to Belgrade (Via Militaris
Via Militaris
Via Militaris or Via Diagonalis was an ancient Roman road, starting from Singidunum , passing by Danube coast to Viminacium , through Naissus , Serdica , Philippopolis , Adrianopolis , and reaching Constantinople...
), but to the road to Salonica, i.e. the old Via Egnatia
Via Egnatia
The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed the Roman provinces of Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thrace, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey.Starting at Dyrrachium on the...
.
Gate of the Spring
Church of St. Mary of the Spring (Istanbul)
The Monastery of the Mother of God at the Spring or simply Zoödochos Pege , is an Eastern Orthodox sanctuary in Istanbul...
("Life-giving Spring
Life-giving Spring
The Life-giving Spring or Life-giving Font is a feast day in the Orthodox Church that is associated with a historic church in Constantinople, as well as an icon of the Theotokos which is venerated by the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine...
") in the modern suburb of Balıklı
Balıklı, Istanbul
Balıklı is a neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey. It belongs to the Zeytinburnu municipality , and is part of the Kazlıçeşme Mahalle....
. Its modern Turkish name, Gate of Selymbria (Tr. Silivri Kapısı, Gk. ), appeared in Byzantine sources shortly before 1453. It lies between towers 35 and 36, which were extensively rebuilt in later Byzantine times and the gate arch was replaced in the Ottoman period. Van Millingen identifies this gate with the early Byzantine Gate of Melantias (Πόρτα Μελαντιάδος), but more recent scholars have proposed the identification of the latter with one of the gates of the city's original Constantinian Wall (see above).
It was through this gate that the forces of the Empire of Nicaea
Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...
, under General Alexios Strategopoulos
Alexios Strategopoulos
Alexios Strategopoulos was a Byzantine general during the reign of Michael VIII Palaiologos, rising to the rank of megas domestikos and Caesar. He is most notable for leading the reconquest of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261.- Early life :...
, entered and retook the city from the Latins
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...
on 25 July 1261.
Third Military Gate
The Third Military Gate , named after the quarter of the Triton ("the Third") that lies behind it, is situated shortly after the Pege Gate, exactly before the C-shaped section of the walls known as the "Sigma
Sigma
Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and carries the 'S' sound. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 200. When used at the end of a word, and the word is not all upper case, the final form is used, e.g...
", between towers 39 and 40. It has no Turkish name, and is of middle or late Byzantine construction. The corresponding gate in the outer wall preserved until the early 20th century, but has since disappeared. It is very likely that this gate is to be identified with the Gate of Kalagros .
Gate of Rhesios
Modern Yeni Mevlevihane Kapısı, located between towers 50 and 51 is commonly referred to as the Gate of Rhegion in early modern texts, allegedly named after the suburb of Rhegion (modern Küçükçekmece
Küçükçekmece
Küçükçekmece is a large, crowded suburb on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey 23 km out of the city, beyond Atatürk Airport. The population of the area reaches 600,000. This area covers 118 km².-Location:...
), or as the Gate of Rhousios after the hippodrome faction
Chariot racing
Chariot racing was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine sports. Chariot racing was often dangerous to both driver and horse as they frequently suffered serious injury and even death, but generated strong spectator enthusiasm...
of the Reds which was supposed to have taken part in its repair. From Byzantine texts however it appears that the correct form is Gate of Rhesios , named according to the 10th-century Suda
Suda
The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...
lexicon after an ancient general of Greek Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
. Schneider also identifies it with the Gate of Myriandr[i]on or Polyandrion ("Place of Many Men"), possibly a reference to its proximity to a cemetery. It is the best-preserved of the gates, and retains substantially unaltered from its original, 5th-century appearance.
Gate of St. Romanus
The Gate of St. Romanus was named so after a nearby church and lies between towers 65 and 66. It is known in Turkish as Topkapı, the "Cannon Gate", after the great Ottoman cannon, the "Basilic
Basilic (cannon)
The Basilic, or The Ottoman Cannon was a supercannon designed by Urban, a Romanian cannon engineer, Saruca Usta and architect Muslihiddin Usta at a time when cannons were still new. It was horribly inaccurate, but when it hit, it caused massive damage to Constantinople's walls...
", that was placed opposite it during the 1453 siege. With a gatehouse of 26,5 m, it is the second-largest gate after the Golden Gate. This gate was earlier identified as the "civil" Gate of St. Romanus. It is here that Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, was killed on 29 May 1453.
Fifth Military Gate
The Fifth Military Gate lies immediately to the north of the Lycus stream, between towers 77 and 78, and is named after the quarter of the Pempton ("the Fifth") around the Lycus. It is heavily damaged, with extensive late Byzantine or Ottoman repairs evident. The outer gate has vanished without a trace. It is also identified with the Byzantine Gate of [the Church of] St. Kyriake, and called Sulukulekapı ("Water-Tower Gate") or Hücum Kapısı ("Assault Gate") in Turkish, because there the decisive breakthrough was achieved on the morning of 29 May 1453. In the late 19th century, it appears as the Örülü kapı ("Walled Gate").
Gate of Charisius
Vir illustris
The title vir illustris is used as a formal indication of standing in late antiquity to describe the highest ranks within the senates of Rome and Constantinople...
of that name, was, after the Golden Gate, the second-most important gate. In Turkish it is known as Edirnekapı ("Adrianople Gate"), and it is here where Mehmed II
Mehmed II
Mehmed II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from...
made his triumphal entry into the conquered city. This gate stands on top of the sixth hill, which was the highest point of the old city at 77 meters. It has also been suggested as one of the gates to be identified with the Gate of Polyandrion or Myriandrion , because it led to a cemetery outside the Walls. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI
Constantine XI
Constantine XI Palaiologos, latinized as Palaeologus , Kōnstantinos XI Dragasēs Palaiologos; February 8, 1404 – May 29, 1453) was the last reigning Byzantine Emperor from 1449 to his death as member of the Palaiologos dynasty...
, established his command here in 1453.
Minor gates and posterns
The first postern lies between the two first towers of the Inner Wall, and features a wreathed Chi-Rhō
Chi Rho
The Chi Rho is one of the earliest forms of christogram, and is used by Christians. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters chi and rho of the Greek word "ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ" =Christ in such a way to produce the monogram ☧...
Christogram
Christogram
A Christogram is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbol. Different types of Christograms are associated with the various traditions of Christianity, e.g...
above it. It was known in late Ottoman times as the Tabak Kapı. Similar posterns are the Yedikule Kapısı, a small postern after the Yedikule Fort (between towers 11 and 12), and the gates between towers 30/31, already walled up in Byzantine times, and 42/43, just north of the "Sigma". On the Yedikule Kapısı, opinions vary as to its origin: some scholars consider it to date already to Byzantine times, while others consider it an Ottoman addition.
Kerkoporta
According to the historian Doukas, on the morning of 29 May 1453, the small postern called Kerkoporta was left open by accident, allowing the first fifty or so Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
troops to enter the city. The Ottomans raised their banner atop the Inner Wall and opened fire on the Greek defenders of the peribolos below. This spread panic, beginning the rout of the defenders and leading to the fall of the city
Fall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI...
. In 1864, the remains of a postern located on the Outer Wall at the end of the Theodosian Walls, between tower 96 and the so-called Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus , known in Turkish as the Tekfur Sarayı , is a 13th-century Byzantine palace in the north-western part of the old city of Constantinople...
, were discovered and identified with the Kerkoporta by the Greek scholar A.G. Paspates. Later historians, like van Millingen and Steven Runciman
Steven Runciman
The Hon. Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH — known as Steven Runciman — was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages...
have accepted this theory as well. However, excavations at the site have uncovered no evidence of a corresponding gate in the Inner Wall (now vanished) in that area, and it may be that Doukas' story is either invention or derived from an earlier legend concerning the Xylokerkos Gate, which several earlier scholars also equated with the Kerkoporta.
Later history
The Theodosian Walls were without a doubt among the most important defensive systems of Late AntiquityLate Antiquity
Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
. Indeed, in the words of the Cambridge Ancient History, they were "perhaps the most successful and influential city walls ever built – they allowed the city and its emperors to survive and thrive for more than a millennium, against all strategic logic, on the edge of [an] extremely unstable and dangerous world...".
With the advent of siege cannons, however, the fortifications became obsolete, but their massive size still provided effective defence, as demonstrated during the Second Ottoman Siege
Siege of Constantinople (1422)
The first full-scale Ottoman Siege of Constantinople took place in 1422 as a result of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II's attempts to interfere in the succession of Ottoman Sultans, after the death of Mehmed I in 1421...
in 1422. In the final siege, which led to the fall of the city to the Ottomans in 1453, the defenders, severely outnumbered, still managed to repeatedly counter Turkish attempts at undermining the walls, repulse several frontal attacks, and restore the damage from the siege cannons for almost two months. Finally, on 29 May, the decisive attack was launched, and when the Genoese general Giovanni Giustiniani
Giovanni Giustiniani
Giovanni Giustiniani Longo was a young Genoese captain, a member of one of the greatest families of the Republic, a kinsman to the powerful house of Doria in Southern Italy., and protostrator of the Byzantine Empire...
was wounded and withdrew, causing a panic among the defenders, the walls were taken. After the capture of the city, Mehmed had the walls repaired in short order among other massive public works projects, and they were kept in repair during the first centuries of Ottoman rule.
Walls of Blachernae
Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus , known in Turkish as the Tekfur Sarayı , is a 13th-century Byzantine palace in the north-western part of the old city of Constantinople...
, with the sea wall at the Golden Horn
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
. They consist of a series of single walls built in different periods, which cover the suburb of Blachernae
Blachernae
Blachernae was a suburb in the northwestern section of Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. It was the site of a spring and a number of prominent churches were built there, most notably the great Church of St. Mary of Blachernae , built by Empress Pulcheria in circa 450,...
. Generally they are about 12–15 meters in height, thicker than the Theodosian Walls and with more closely spaced towers. Situated on a steep slope, they lacked a moat, except on their lower end towards the Golden Horn, where Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus was the Byzantine emperor from 1347 to 1354.-Early life:Born in Constantinople, John Kantakouzenos was the son of a Michael Kantakouzenos, governor of the Morea. Through his mother Theodora Palaiologina Angelina, he was a descendant of the reigning house of...
had dug one.
The question of the original fortifications in this area has been examined by several scholars, and several theories have been proposed as to their course. It is known from the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae
Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae
The Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae is an ancient "regionary", i.e., a list of monuments, public buildings and civil officials in Constantinople during the mid-5th century , during the reign of the emperor Theodosius II...
that the XIV region, which comprised Blachernae, stood apart and was enclosed all around by a wall of its own. Further it is recorded that originally, and at least as late as the Avar siege of 626
Siege of Constantinople (626)
The Siege of Constantinople in 626 by the Avars, aided by large numbers of allied Slavs and the Sassanid Persians, ended in a strategic victory for the Byzantines...
, when they were burned down, the important sanctuaries of Panagia Blachernitissa
Church of St. Mary of Blachernae (Istanbul)
Saint Mary of Blachernae is an Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul...
and St. Nicholas lay just outside the quarter's fortifications. Traces of the quarter's walls have been preserved, running from the area of the Porphyrogenitus Palace in straight line to the so-called Prison of Anemas
Prison of Anemas
The so-called Prison of Anemas is a large Byzantine building attached to the walls of the city of Constantinople, modern Istanbul, Turkey. It is traditionally identified with the prisons named after Michael Anemas, a Byzantine general who rose in unsuccessful revolt against Emperor Alexios I...
. The original fortified quarter can thereby be roughly traced to have comprised the two northern spurs of the city's Seventh Hill in a triangle, stretching from the Porphyrogenitus Palace to the Anemas Prison, from there to the church of St. Demetrios Kanabos and thence back to the Porphyrogenitus Palace. These fortifications were apparently older than the Theodosian Walls, probably dating to sometime in the 4th century, and were then connected to the new city walls under Theodosius II, with the western wall forming the outer face of the city's defences and the eastern wall fell into disrepair.
Today, the Theodosian Walls are connected in the vicinity of the Porphyrogenitus Palace with a short wall, which features a postern, probably the postern of the Porphyrogenitus recorded by John Kantakouzenos, and extends from the Palace to the first tower of the so-called Wall of Manuel Komnenos. As recorded by the historian Niketas Choniates, that wall was built by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....
(r. 1143–1180) as a protection to the imperial palace of Blachernae
Palace of Blachernae
The Palace of Blachernae was an imperial Byzantine residence in the suburb of Blachernae, located in the northwestern section of Constantinople...
, since the late 11th century the emperors' preferred residence. It is an architecturally excellent fortification, consisting of a series of arches closed on their outer face, built with masonry larger than usual and thicker than the Theodosian Walls, measuring some 5 m at the top. It features eight round and octagonal towers, while the last is square. The wall stretches for 220 m, beginning at an almost right angle from the line of the Theodosian Walls, going westward up to the third tower and then turning sharply north. The quality of the wall's construction was shown in the final Ottoman siege, when repeated attacks, intensive bombardment (including the large bombard of Orban
Orban
Urban, also known as Orban, was a Hungarian gunfounder who cast superguns for the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453.In 1452 he originally offered his services to the Byzantines, but emperor Constantine XI could not afford his high salary nor did he possess the materials necessary for...
) and attempts at undermining it came to naught. The wall features one postern, between the second and third towers, and one large gate, the Eğri Kapı ("Crooked Gate"), between the sixth and seventh towers. Its Turkish name comes from the sharp bend of the road in front of it to pass around a tomb which is supposed to belong to Hazret Hafiz, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
who died there during the first Arab siege
Siege of Constantinople (674)
The First Arab Siege of Constantinople in 674 was a major conflict of the Byzantine-Arab Wars, and was one of the numerous times Constantinople's defences were tested. It was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Umayyad Caliphate...
of the city. It is usually, but not conclusively, identified with the Byzantine Kaligaria Gate , the "Gate of the Bootmakers' Quarter" (cf. Latin caliga, "sandal").
From the last tower of the Wall of Manuel Komnenos to the so-called Prison of Anemas
Prison of Anemas
The so-called Prison of Anemas is a large Byzantine building attached to the walls of the city of Constantinople, modern Istanbul, Turkey. It is traditionally identified with the prisons named after Michael Anemas, a Byzantine general who rose in unsuccessful revolt against Emperor Alexios I...
stretches another wall, some 150 m in length, with four square towers. It is probably of later date, and of markedly inferior quality than the Komnenian wall, being less thick and with smaller stones and brick tiles utilized in its construction. It also bears inscriptions commemorating repairs in 1188, 1317 and 1441. A walled-up postern after the second tower is commonly identified with the Gyrolimne Gate , named after the Argyra Limnē, the "Silver Lake", which stood at the head of the Golden Horn. It probably serviced the Blachernae Palace, as evidenced by its decoration with three imperial busts. Schneider however suggests that the name could refer rather to the Eğri Kapı.
Then comes the outer wall of the Anemas Prison, which connects to a double stretch of walls. The outer wall is known as the Wall of Leo, as it was constructed by Leo V the Armenian
Leo V the Armenian
Leo V the Armenian was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 813 to 820. A senior general, he forced his predecessor, Michael I Rangabe, to abdicate and assumed the throne. He ended the decade-long war with the Bulgars, and initiated the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm...
(r. 813–820) in 813 to safeguard against the siege by the Bulgarian
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
ruler Krum. This wall was then extended to the south by Michael II
Michael II
Michael II , surnamed the Amorian or the Stammerer , reigned as Byzantine emperor from December 820 to his death on 2 October 829, and the first ruler of the Phrygian or Amorian dynasty....
(r. 820–829). The wall is a relatively light structure, less than 3 m thick, buttressed by arches which support its parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
and featuring four towers and numerous loopholes. Behind the Leonine Wall lies an inner wall, which was renovated and strengthened by the additions of three particularly fine hexagonal towers by Emperor Theophilos
Theophilos (emperor)
Theophilos was the Byzantine emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Phrygian dynasty, and the last emperor supporting iconoclasm...
(r. 829–842). The two walls stand some 26 m apart and are pierced by a gate each, together comprising the Gate of Blachernae . The two walls form a fortified enclosure, called the Brachionion or Brachiolion (βραχιόνιον/βραχιόλιον, "bracelet") of the Blachernae by the Byzantines, and known after the Ottoman capture of the city in Greek as the Pentapyrgion (Πενταπύργιον, "Five Towers"), in allusion to the Yedikule (Gk. Heptapyrgion) fortress. The inner wall is traditionally identified by scholars like Millingen and Janin with the Wall of Heraclius, built by Emperor Heraclius
Heraclius
Heraclius was Byzantine Emperor from 610 to 641.He was responsible for introducing Greek as the empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, successfully led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.Heraclius'...
(r. 610–641) after the Avar siege to enclose and protect the Church of the Blachernitissa. Schneider however identified it in part with the Pteron (Πτερόν, "wing"), built at the time of Theodosius II to cover the northern flank of the Blachernae (hence its alternate designation as proteichisma, "outwork
Outwork
An outwork is a minor defense, fortification, built or established outside the principal fortification limits, detached or semidetached. Outworks were developed in the 16th century, such as ravelins, lunettes , caponiers to shield bastions and fortification curtains from direct battery...
") from the Anemas Prison to the Golden Horn. Consequently, Schneider transferred the identity of the Heraclian Wall on the short stretch of sea wall directly attached to it to its east, which displays a distinct architecture separate from the other.
Another, short wall was added in later times, probably in the reign of Theophilos, stretching from the junction of the land and sea walls to the sea itself, and pierced by the so-called Wooden Gate (Ξυλίνη πύλη, Xylinē pylē, or Ξυλόπορτα, Xyloporta). Both this wall and the gate were demolished in 1868.
Preservation and restoration work on the Land Walls
The land walls run through the heart of modern Istanbul, with a belt of parkland flanking their course. They are pierced at intervals by modern roads leading westwards out of the city. Many sections were restored during the 1980s, with financial support from UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, but the restoration program has been criticized for destroying historical evidence, focusing on superficial restoration, the use of inappropriate materials and poor quality of work. This became apparent in the 1999 earthquakes
1999 Izmit earthquake
The 1999 İzmit earthquake was a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck northwestern Turkey on August 17, 1999, at about 3:02am local time. The event lasted for 37 seconds, killing around 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million people homeless...
, when the restored sections collapsed while the original structure underneath remained intact. The threat posed by urban pollution, and the lack of a comprehensive restoration effort, prompted the World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training....
to include them on its 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world.
Sea Walls
The seaward walls enclosed the city on the sides of the Sea of Marmara (Propontis) and the gulf of the Golden HornGolden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
. Although the original city of Byzantium certainly had sea walls, traces of which survive, the exact date for the construction of the medieval walls is a matter of debate. Traditionally, the seaward walls have been attributed by scholars to Constantine I, along with the construction of the main land wall. However, the first actual reference to their construction comes in 439, when the urban prefect Cyrus of Panopolis
Cyrus of Panopolis
Flavius Taurus Seleucus Cyrus , better known as Cyrus of Panopolis from his birthplace of Panopolis in Egypt, was a senior East Roman official, epic poet, philosopher and a lover of Greek arts...
(in sources often confused with the praetorian prefect Constantine
Constantine (consul 457)
Flavius Constantinus was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire, consul and three times praetorian prefect of the East.- Life :...
) was ordered to repair the city walls and complete them on the seaward side. This activity is certainly not unconnected to the fact that in the same year, Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
fell to the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
, an event which signaled the emergence of a naval threat in the Mediterranean. This two-phase construction remains the general consensus; Cyril Mango
Cyril Mango
Cyril Alexander Mango is a British scholar in the history, art, and architecture of the Byzantine Empire. He is a former King's College London and Oxford professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature. He is the brother of Andrew Mango.One of his major works The Mosaics of St...
however doubts the existence of any seaward fortifications during Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
, as they are not specifically mentioned as extant by contemporary sources until much later, around the year 700.
The Sea Walls were architecturally similar to the Theodosian Walls, but of simpler construction. They were formed by a single wall, considerably lower than the land walls, with inner circuits in the locations of the harbours. Enemy access to the walls facing the Golden Horn was prevented by the presence of a heavy chain or boom, installed by Emperor Leo III
Leo III the Isaurian
Leo III the Isaurian or the Syrian , was Byzantine emperor from 717 until his death in 741...
(r. 717–741), supported by floating barrels and stretching across the mouth of the inlet. One end of this chain was fastened to the Tower of Eugenius, in the modern suburb of Sirkeci
Sirkeci
Sirkeci is an area in the Eminönü neighborhood of the Fatih district of the city of Istanbul, Turkey. It has evolved as the place name of the area in Eminönü surrounding Sirkeci Station, the Southeastern long distance passenger train terminus in Europe for the Orient Express.The neighborhood...
, and the other in Galata
Galata
Galata or Galatae is a neighbourhood in the Beyoğlu district on the European side of Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey. Galata is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn, the inlet which separates it from the historic peninsula of old Constantinople. The Golden Horn is crossed by...
, to a large, square tower, the Kastellion, the basement of which was later turned into the Yeraltı (underground) Mosque. At the same time, on the Marmara coast, the city's defence was helped by strong currents, which made an attack by a fleet almost impossible. According to Geoffrey of Villehardouin
Geoffrey of Villehardouin
Geoffrey of Villehardouin was a knight and historian who participated in and chronicled the Fourth Crusade...
, it was for this reason that the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
did not attack the city from this side.
During the early centuries of its existence, Constantinople faced few naval threats. Especially after the wars of Justinian, the Mediterranean had again become a "Roman lake". It was during the first siege of the city by the Avars
Eurasian Avars
The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...
and the Sassanid Persians
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
that for the first time, a naval engagement was fought off the city itself. However, after the Arab conquests
Byzantine-Arab Wars
The Byzantine–Arab Wars were a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the East Roman or Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring...
of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, a new naval threat emerged. In response, the sea walls were renovated in the early 8th century under Tiberios III
Tiberios III
Tiberios III was Byzantine emperor from 698 to 21 August 705. Although his rule was considered generally successful, especially in containing the Arab threat to the east, he was overthrown by the former emperor Justinian II and subsequently executed.-Rise to power:Tiberius was a Germanic naval...
(r. 698–705) or Anastasios II
Anastasios II (emperor)
Artemius Anastasius , known in English as Anastasios II or Anastasius II, , was Byzantine emperor from 713 to 715....
(r. 713–715). Michael II
Michael II
Michael II , surnamed the Amorian or the Stammerer , reigned as Byzantine emperor from December 820 to his death on 2 October 829, and the first ruler of the Phrygian or Amorian dynasty....
(r. 820–829) initiated a wide-scale reconstruction, eventually completed by his successor Theophilos
Theophilos (emperor)
Theophilos was the Byzantine emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Phrygian dynasty, and the last emperor supporting iconoclasm...
(r. 829–842), which increased their height. As these repairs coincided with the capture of Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
by the Saracens, no expense was spared: As Constantine Manasses
Constantine Manasses
Constantine Manasses was a Byzantine chronicler who flourished in the 12th century during the reign of Manuel I Komnenos . He was the author of a chronicle or historical synopsis of events from the creation of the world to the end of the reign of Nikephoros Botaneiates , sponsored by Irene...
wrote, "the gold coins of the realm were spent as freely as worthless pebbles". Theophilos' extensive work, essentially rebuilding the sea walls, is testified to by the numerous inscriptions found or otherwise recorded that bear his name, more than those of any other emperor. Despite future changes and restorations, these walls would essentially protect the city until the end of the empire.
Michael VIII Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus reigned as Byzantine Emperor 1259–1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453...
(r. 1259–1282) took particular care to heighten and strengthen the seaward walls immediately after the Byzantine recapture of the city in 1261, since a Latin attempt to recover the city was regarded as imminent. Furthermore, the installation of the Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
at Galata
Galata
Galata or Galatae is a neighbourhood in the Beyoğlu district on the European side of Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey. Galata is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn, the inlet which separates it from the historic peninsula of old Constantinople. The Golden Horn is crossed by...
across the Golden Horn, agreed upon in the Treaty of Nymphaeum
Treaty of Nymphaeum (1261)
The Treaty of Nymphaeum was a trade and defense pact signed between the Empire of Nicaea and the Republic of Genoa in Nymphaion in March of 1261...
, posed a further potential threat to the city. Time being short, as a Latin attempt to recover the city was expected, the sea walls were heightened by the addition of two-meter high wooden and hide-covered screens. Ten years later, facing the threat of an invasion by Charles d'Anjou
Charles I of Sicily
Charles I , known also as Charles of Anjou, was the King of Sicily by conquest from 1266, though he had received it as a papal grant in 1262 and was expelled from the island in the aftermath of the Sicilian Vespers of 1282...
, a second line of walls was built behind the original maritime walls, although no trace of them survives today.
The walls were again restored under Andronikos II Palaiologos
Andronikos II Palaiologos
Andronikos II Palaiologos , Latinized as Andronicus II Palaeologus, was Byzantine emperor from 1282 to 1328. He was the eldest surviving son of Michael VIII Palaiologos and Theodora Doukaina Vatatzina, grandniece of John III Doukas Vatatzes...
(r. 1282–1328) and again under his successor Andronikos III Palaiologos
Andronikos III Palaiologos
Andronikos III Palaiologos, Latinized as Andronicus III Palaeologus was Byzantine emperor from 1328 to 1341, after being rival emperor since 1321. Andronikos III was the son of Michael IX Palaiologos and Rita of Armenia...
(r. 1328–1341), when, on 12 February 1332, a major storm caused breaches in the wall and forced the seaward gates open. In 1351, when the empire was at war with the Genoese, John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus was the Byzantine emperor from 1347 to 1354.-Early life:Born in Constantinople, John Kantakouzenos was the son of a Michael Kantakouzenos, governor of the Morea. Through his mother Theodora Palaiologina Angelina, he was a descendant of the reigning house of...
again repaired the walls, and even opened a moat in front of the wall facing the Golden Horn. Other repairs are recorded for 1434, again against the Genoese, and again in the years leading up to the final siege and fall of the city to the Ottomans, partly with funds provided by the Despot of Serbia
Serbian Despotate
The Serbian Despotate was a Serbian state, the last to be conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Although the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is generally considered the end of the medieval Serbian state, the Despotate, a successor of the Serbian Empire and Moravian Serbia survived for 70 more years,...
, George Brankovic.
Golden Horn Wall
The wall facing towards the Golden HornGolden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
, where in later times most seaborne traffic was conducted, stretched for a total length of 5,600 metres from the cape of St. Demetrius to the Blachernae, where it adjoined the Land Walls. Although most of the wall was demolished in the 1870s, during the construction of the railway line, its course and the position of most gates and towers is known with accuracy. It was built further inland from the shore, and was about 10 metres tall. According to Cristoforo Buondelmonti
Cristoforo Buondelmonti
Cristoforo Buondelmonti was an Italian monk and traveler, and a pioneer in promoting first-hand knowledge of Greece and its antiquities throughout the Western world....
it featured 14 gates and 110 towers, although 16 gates are known that are of Byzantine origin. The northern shore of the city was always its more cosmopolitan part: a major focal point of commerce, it also contained the quarters allocated to feoreigners living in the imperial capital. Muslim traders had their own lodgings (mitaton) there, including a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
, while from the time of Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...
(r. 1081–1118) on, the emperors granted to the various Italian maritime republics extensive trading quarters which included their own wharfs (skalai) beyond the sea walls.
The known gates of the Golden Horn wall are, in order, from the Blachernae eastwards to the Seraglio Point:
The first gate, very near the land walls, was the Koiliomene Gate , in Turkish Küçük Ayvansaray
Ayvansaray (Istanbul)
Ayvansaray is a neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey. It is part of the district of Fatih and part of the walled city. It lies between the southern shore of the Golden Horn, the Blachernae section of the Walls, and the neighborhoods of Balat and Edirnekapı. It corresponds to the old quarter of Blachernae...
Kapısı. Shortly after stood the Gate of St. Anastasia
St. Anastasia
Saint Anastasia was a Christian saint and martyr who died at Sirmium. In the Orthodox Church she is commemorated as the Great Martyr Anastasia, the Deliverer from Potions ....
, located near the Atik Mustafa Pasha Mosque
Atik Mustafa Pasha Mosque
- External links :*...
, hence in Turkish Atik Mustafa Paşa Kapısı. In close proximity on the outer side of the walls lay the Church of St. Nicholas Kanabos, which in 1597–1601 served as the cathedral of the Patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
.
Further south was the Gate of the Phanarion , Turkish Fener Kapısı, named after the local light-tower (phanarion in Greek), which also gave its name to the local suburb
Fener
Fener is a neighborhood midway up the Golden Horn within the district of Fatih in Istanbul , Turkey. The streets in the area are full of historic wooden houses, churches, and synagogues dating from Byzantine and Ottoman eras. The area's name is a Turkish transliteration of the original Greek φανάρι...
. The gate also marked the western entrance of the Petrion Fort , formed by a double stretch of walls between the Gate of the Phanarion and the Petrion Gate , in Turkish Petri Kapısı. According to Byzantine tradition, the area was named thus after Peter the Patrician
Peter the Patrician
Peter the Patrician was a senior East Roman or Byzantine official, diplomat and historian. A well-educated and successful lawyer, he was repeatedly sent as envoy to Ostrogothic Italy in the prelude to the Gothic War of 535–554. Despite his diplomatic skill, he was not able to avert war, and was...
, a leading minister of Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
(r. 527–565). A small gate of the western end of the fort's inner wall, near the Phanarion Gate, led to the city, and was called the Gate of Diplophanarion. It was at the Petrion Gate that the Venetians, under the personal leadership of Doge Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo — anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus — was the 41st Doge of Venice from 1195 until his death...
, scaled the walls and entered the city in the 1204 sack. In the 1453 siege however, an Ottoman attack on the same place was repelled.
The next gate, Yeni Ayakapı ("New Gate of the Saint"), is not Byzantine, unless it replaces an earlier Byzantine entrance. It was constructed by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in 1582. Shortly after it lies the older Ayakapı
Ayakapi
Ayakapı is a neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey. It is part of the district of Fatih, inside the walled city, and lies on the shore of the Golden Horn. During the Byzantine era, it was named ta Dexiokratiana or ta Dexiokratous in Greek, after the houses owned here by a certain Dexiokrates...
("Gate of the Saint"), known in Greek as the St. Theodosia Gate after the great earby church of St. Theodosia (formerly identified with the Gül Mosque
Gül Mosque
Gül Mosque is a former Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul, Turkey converted into a mosque by the Ottomans.- Location :The building is located in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Ayakapı , along Vakif Mektebi Sokak...
). The next gate is that of Eis Pegas , known by Latin chroniclers as Porta Puteae or Porta del Pozzo, modern Cibali Kapısı. It was named so because it looked towards the quarter of Pegae on the other shore of the Golden Horn. Next was the now-demolished Gate of the Platea follows, rendered as Porta della Piazza by Italian chroniclers, and called in Turkish Unkapanı Kapısı ("Gate of the Flour Depot"). It was named after the local quarter of Plate[i]a ("broad place", signifying the broad shoreline at this place). The next gate, Ayazma Kapısı ("Gate of the Holy Well"), is in all probability an Ottoman-era structure.
The next gate is the Gate of the Drungarii
Drungarios
A droungarios, also spelled drungarios or, in its English form, drungary, was a military rank of the late Roman and Byzantine Empires, signifying the commander of a droungos.-Late Roman and Byzantine army:...
, modern Odunkapısı ("Wood Gate"). Its Byzantine name derives from the high official known as the Drungarius of the Vigla. It marked the western end of the Venetian quarter. It is followed by the Gate the Forerunner, known as St. John de Cornibus by the Latins, named after a nearby chapel. In Turkish it is known as Zindan Kapısı ("Dungeon Gate"). The destroyed Gate of the Perama lay in the suburb of Perama ("Crossing"), from which the ferry to Pera
Beyoglu
Beyoğlu is a district located on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn...
(Galata) sailed. It marked the eastern limit of the Venetian quarter of the city, and the beginning of the Amalfi
Amalfi
Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno, c. 35 km southeast of Naples. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto , surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery...
tan quarter to its east. In Buondelmonti's map, it is labelled Porta Piscaria, on account of the fishmarket that used to be held there, a name that has been preserved in its modern Turkish appellation, Balıkpazarı Kapısı, "Gate of the Fish-market". This gate is also identified with the Gate of the Jews , Porta Hebraica in Latin sources, although the same name was apparently applied over time to other gates as well. In its vicinity was probably also the Gate of St. Mark, which is recorded in a single Venetian document of 1229. Its identity is unclear, as is the question whether the gate, conspicuously named in honour of the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of Venice, was pre-existing or opened after the fall of the city to the Crusaders in 1204.
To the east of the Perama Gate was the Hikanatissa Gate , a name perhaps derived from the imperial tagma
Tagma (military)
The tagma is a term for a military unit of battalion or regiment size. The best-known and most technical use of the term however refers to the elite regiments formed by Byzantine emperor Constantine V and comprising the central army of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th–11th centuries.-History and...
of the Hikanatoi
Hikanatoi
The Hikanatoi , sometimes Latinized as Hicanati, were one of the Byzantine tagmata, the elite guard units based near the imperial capital of Constantinople...
. The gate marked the eastern end of the Amalfi
Amalfi
Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno, c. 35 km southeast of Naples. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto , surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery...
tan quarter of the city and the western edge of the Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
n quarter. Further east lay the Gate of the Neorion , recorded as the Horaia Gate in late Byzantine and Ottoman times. As its names testifies, it led to the leading to the Neorion, the main harbour of ancient Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
and the oldest naval arsenal of the city. In the early Ottoman period, it was known in Turkish as the Çıfıtkapı ("Hebrew Gate"), but its modern name is Bahçekapı ("Garden Gate"). The eastern limit of the Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
n quarter was located a bit eastwards of the gate.
The 12th-century Genoese quarter of the city extended from there to the east, and in the documents conferring privileges on them one finds mention of two gates: the Porta Bonu ("Gate of Bonus", probably transcribed from Greek ), and the Porta Veteris Rectoris ("Gate of the old rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
"). It is very likely that these two names refer to the same gate, probably named after an otherwise unknown rector Bonus, and located somewhere in the modern Sirkeci
Sirkeci
Sirkeci is an area in the Eminönü neighborhood of the Fatih district of the city of Istanbul, Turkey. It has evolved as the place name of the area in Eminönü surrounding Sirkeci Station, the Southeastern long distance passenger train terminus in Europe for the Orient Express.The neighborhood...
district. Finally, the last gate of the Golden Horn wall was the Gate of Eugenius , leading to the Prosphorion harbour. In close proximity was the 4th-century Tower of Eugenius or Kentenarion, where the great chain that closed the entrance to the Golden Horn was kept and suspended from. The gate was also called Marmaroporta (Μαρμαροπόρτα, "Marble Gate"), because it was covered in marble, and featured a statue of the Emperor Julian
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
. It is usually identified with the Ottoman Yalıköşk Kapısı, and was destroyed in 1871.
Propontis Wall
The wall of the Propontis was built almost at the shoreline, with the exception of harbours and quays, and had a height of 12–15 metres, with thirteen gates, and 188 towers. and a total length of almost 8,460 metres, with further 1,080 metres comprising the inner wall of the Vlanga harbour. Several sections of the wall were damaged during the construction of the Kennedy Caddesi coastal road in 1956–57. The wall's proximity to the sea and the strong currents of the Propontis meant that eastern and southern shores of the peninsula were comparatively safe from attack, but conversely, the walls had to be protected against the sea itself: a breakwater of boulders was placed in front of their base, and marble shafts were used as bonds in the walls' base to enhance their structural integrity. From the cape at the edge of the ancient acropolisAcropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
of the city (modern Sarayburnu, Seraglio Point), south and west to the Marble Tower, the Propontis Wall and its gates went as follows:
The first gate, now demolished, was the Eastern Gate or Gate of St. Barbara after a nearby church, in Turkish Top Kapısı ("Gate of the Cannon"), from which Topkapı Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
takes its name. Unique among the seaward gates, it was, like the Golden Gate, flanked by two large towers of white marble, which in 1816 was used to construct the nearby Marble Kiosk
Marble Kiosk
The Marble Kiosk was a structure directly located at the banks of the Bosphorus of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, and served as a pleasure building for the Ottoman Padishah. It was located next to the Cannon Gate , both structures are today lost....
of Sultan Mahmud II
Mahmud II
Mahmud II was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. He was born in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, the son of Sultan Abdulhamid I...
. Twice it served as the entry-point for an emperor's triumphal return: in 1126, when John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as Kaloïōannēs , he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina...
returned from the recapture of his ancestral Kastamonu
Kastamonu
Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. The district covers an area of , and the town lies at an elevation of...
, and in 1168, when Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....
returned from his victorious campaign
Battle of Sirmium
The Battle of Sirmium or Battle of Zemun was fought on July 8, 1167 between the Byzantine Empire , and the Kingdom of Hungary...
against Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
.
Next was the gate known in Turkish as Değirmen Kapı ("Mill[stone] Gate"), whose Byzantine name is unknown. Close by and to its north stood the great Tower of Mangana, which was intended to hold the one end of the chain, planned (but probably never actually installed) by Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....
to close off the Bosporus
Bosporus
The Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...
, the other end being at a tower erected on the island of the modern Maiden's Tower (Kız Kulesi) off Chrysopolis (modern Üsküdar
Üsküdar
Üsküdar is a large and densely populated municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered on the north by Beykoz, on the east by Ümraniye, on the southeast by Ataşehir, on the south by Kadıköy, and on the west by the Bosphorus, with the areas of Beşiktaş,...
), known as Damalis (Δάμαλις) or Arkla in Byzantine times. The next gate is now known as the Demirkapı ("Iron Gate"), and is an Ottoman-era structure. A Greek name is not known, and it is not known whether a gate stood there in Byzantine times. Behind these two gates extended the quarter of the Mangana (Μάγγανα, "Arsenal"), with its numerous monasteries, the most famous of which were those of St. George of Mangana, the Church of Christ Philanthropos, and of the Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
Hodegetria
Hodegetria
A Hodegetria — or Virgin Hodegetria — is an iconographic depiction of the Theotokos holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to Him as the source of salvation for mankind...
, and the Palace of Mangana. Four small posterns, in two pairs of two, stand at the southern edge of the Mangana quarter, and probably serviced the numerous churches. The names, but not the identity, of two of them have been recorded, the Postern of St. Lazarus , and the Small Gate of the Hodegetria , both named after the respective monasteries located near them. It is also probable that one of them is to be identified with the Postern of Michael the Protovestiarius .
Bucoleon
The Palace of Boukoleon or Bucoleon was one of the Byzantine palaces in Constantinople. It was probably built by Theodosius II in the 5th century.The palace sits on the shore of Marmara Sea. Hormisdas is an earlier name of the place...
, known in Byzantine times as the Gate of the Lion (Gk. Πόρτα Λέοντος, Porta Leontos, in Latin Porta Leonis) after the marble lions that flanked its entrance, as well as Gate of the Bear after depictions of that animal at the quay. In Turkish it is known as Çatladıkapı ("Broken Gate").
To the west of the Bucoleon Palace lies the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus
Little Hagia Sophia
Little Hagia Sophia , formerly the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus , is a former Eastern Orthodox church dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, later converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire....
, and the first of the harbours of the city's southern shore, that of the Sophiae, named after the wife
Sophia (empress)
Aelia Sophia was the Empress consort of Justin II of the Byzantine Empire from 565 to 578. She was specifically interested in economic matters and was involved in financial matters during Justin's reign...
of Emperor Justin II
Justin II
Justin II was Byzantine Emperor from 565 to 578. He was the husband of Sophia, nephew of Justinian I and the late Empress Theodora, and was therefore a member of the Justinian Dynasty. His reign is marked by war with Persia and the loss of the greater part of Italy...
(r. 565–578) and known originally as the Port of Julian
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
. A small postern is situated in front of the church, while the first larger gate, the Gate of the Sophiae or Iron Gate , opened to the harbour. In Turkish, it is known as Kadırgalimanı Kapısı, "Gate of the Harbour of the Galleys". Next was the Gate of Kontoskalion , modern Kumkapısı ("Sand Gate"), which opened to the late Byzantine harbour of the same name, intended to replace the long silted-up Harbour of the Sophiae.
The next harbour to the west is the large Harbour of Eleutherius or Theodosius, in the area known as Vlanga. The harbours are now silted up and known as the Langa Bostan park. Immediately before it to the east stands the gate known in Turkish as the Yenikapı
Yenikapi
Yenikapı is a port and a neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, in the metropolitan district of Fatih on the European side of the Bosphorus and along the southern shore of the city's historically central peninsula....
("New Gate"). A Latin inscription commemorates its repair after the 447 earthquake It is usually identified with the Jewish Gate of late Byzantine times. Immediately to the west after the harbour lies the next gate, Davutpaşa Kapısı ("Gate of Davut Pasha"), usually identified with the Gate of Saint Aemilianus , which is known to have stood at the junction of the sea wall with the city's original Constantinian Wall. That view however is disputed by Janin, as the junction of the walls occurred considerably to the west from the modern gate's location.
Further to the west, where the shoreline turns sharply south, stood the Gate of Psamathia , modern Samatya Kapısı, leading to the suburb
Samatya
Samatya is a neighborhood of the Fatih district of Istanbul. It is located along the Marmara Sea, and borders to the west on the neighborhood of Yedikule . The name originates from the Greek word Ψαμάθιον Samatya is a neighborhood of the Fatih district of Istanbul. It is located along the Marmara...
of the same name. Further south and west lies the gate known today as Narlıkapı ("Pomegranate Gate"). Its Byzantine name is unknown, but is prominent on account of its proximity to the famed Monastery of St John the Studite.
Garrisons of the city
During the whole existence of the Byzantine Empire, the garrison of the city was quite small: the imperial guards and the small city watch (the pedatoura or kerketon) under the urban prefect were the only permanent armed force available. Any threat to the city would have to be dealt with by the field armies in the provinces, before it could approach the city itself. In times of need, such as the earthquake of 447 or the raids by the Avars in the early 7th century, the general population, organized in the guilds and the hippodrome factions, would be conscripted and armed, or additional troops would be brought in from the provincial armies.In the early centuries, the imperial guard consisted of the units of the Excubitores
Excubitors
The Excubitors were founded in circa 460 AD as the imperial guards of the early Byzantine emperors. Their commanders soon acquired great influence and provided a series of emperors in the 6th century...
and Scholae Palatinae
Scholae Palatinae
The Scholae Palatinae , were an elite military guard unit, usually ascribed to the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great as a replacement for the equites singulares Augusti, the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard...
, which by the late 7th century had declined to parade-ground troops. At about that time Justinian II
Justinian II
Justinian II , surnamed the Rhinotmetos or Rhinotmetus , was the last Byzantine Emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711...
established the first new guards units to protect the imperial palace precinct, while in the 8th century the emperors, faced with successive revolts by the thematic armies and pursuing deeply unpopular iconoclastic policies, established the imperial tagmata
Tagma (military)
The tagma is a term for a military unit of battalion or regiment size. The best-known and most technical use of the term however refers to the elite regiments formed by Byzantine emperor Constantine V and comprising the central army of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th–11th centuries.-History and...
as an elite force loyal to them. As the tagmata were often used to form the core of imperial expeditionary armies, they were not always present in or near the city. Only two of them, the Noumeroi and the Teicheiōtai, the palace guard units established by Justinian II, remained permanently stationed in Constantinople, garrisoned around the palace district
Great Palace of Constantinople
The Great Palace of Constantinople — also known as the Sacred Palace — was the large Imperial Byzantine palace complex located in the south-eastern end of the peninsula now known as "Old Istanbul", modern Turkey...
or in various locations, such as disused churches, in the capital. The units present in the city at any one time were thus never very numerous, numbering a few thousands at best, but they were complemented by several detachments stationed around the capital, in Thrace and Bithynia
Bithynia
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...
.
The small size of the city's garrison was due to the uneasiness of emperors and populace alike towards a permanent large military force, both for fear of a military uprising and because of the considerable financial burden its maintenance would entail. Furthermore, a large force was largely unnecessary, because of the inherent security provided by the city walls themselves. As historian John Haldon notes, "providing the gates were secured and the defenses provided with a skeleton force, the City was safe against even very large forces in the pre-gunpowder period."
Fortifications around Constantinople
Anastasian Wall
The Anastasian Wall or the Long Walls of Thrace is an ancient, stone and turf fortification located west of Istanbul, Turkey built by the Byzantines during the late 5th century...
(Gk. , teichos Anastasiakon) or Long Wall , built in the mid-5th century as an outer defence to Constantinople, some 65 km westwards of the city. It was 3.30 m thick and over 5 m high, but its effectiveness was apparently limited, and it was abandoned at some time in the 7th century for want of resources to maintain and men to garrison it. For centuries thereafter, its materials were used in local buildings, but several parts, especially in the remoter central and northern sections, are still extant.
In addition, between the Anastasian Wall and the city itself, there were several small towns and fortresses like Selymbria, Rhegion or the great suburb of Hebdomon ("Seventh", modern Bakırköy
Bakirköy
This article is about a neighbourhood in IstanbulBakırköy is a neighborhood, municipality and district on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey. The quarter is densely populated, has a residential character and is inhabited by a middle class population...
, so named from its distance of seven Roman miles from the city walls), the site of major military encampments. Beyond the Long Walls, the towns of Bizye
Vize
Vize is a town and district of Kırklareli Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The mayor is Selçuk Yılmaz . The population is 12,196 as of 2010.- History :...
and Arcadiopolis covered the northern approaches. These localities were strategically situated along the main routes to the city, and formed the outer defenses of Constantinople throughout its history, serving to muster forces, confront enemy invasions or at least buy time for the capital's defenses to be brought in order. It is notable that during the final Ottoman siege, several of them, such as Selymbria, surrendered only after the fall of Constantinople itself. In Asia Minor, their role was mirrored by the cities of Nicaea and Nicomedia
Nicomedia
Nicomedia was an ancient city in what is now Turkey, founded in 712/11 BC as a Megarian colony and was originally known as Astacus . After being destroyed by Lysimachus, it was rebuilt by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia, and has ever since been one of the most...
, and the large field camp at Malagina
Malagina
Malagina , in later times Melangeia , was a Byzantine district in the valley of the Sangarius river in northern Bithynia, which served as a major encampment and fortified staging area for the Byzantine army...
.
Walls of Galata
GalataGalata
Galata or Galatae is a neighbourhood in the Beyoğlu district on the European side of Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey. Galata is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn, the inlet which separates it from the historic peninsula of old Constantinople. The Golden Horn is crossed by...
, then the suburb of Sykai, was an integral part of the city by the early 5th century: the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae
Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae
The Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae is an ancient "regionary", i.e., a list of monuments, public buildings and civil officials in Constantinople during the mid-5th century , during the reign of the emperor Theodosius II...
of ca. 425 names it as the city's 13th region. It was probably fortified with walls in the 5th century, and under Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
it was granted the status of a city. The settlement declined and disappeared after the 7th century, leaving only the great tower
Galata Tower (old)
The old Tower of Galata was a tower, which stood on the north side of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, inside the citadel of Galata. The tower marked the northern end of the great chain, which was stretched across the mouth of the Golden Horn to prevent enemy ships from entering the harbor...
(the kastellion tou Galatou) in modern Karaköy, that guarded the chain extending across the mouth of the Golden Horn. After the sack of the city in 1204, Galata became a Venetian quarter, and later a Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
extraterritorial colony, effectively outside Byzantine control. Despite Byzantine opposition, the Genoese managed to surround their quarter with a moat, and by joining their castle-like houses with walls they created the first wall around the colony. The Galata Tower
Galata Tower
The Galata Tower — called Christea Turris by the Genoese — is a medieval stone tower in the Galata district of Istanbul, Turkey, just to the north of the Golden Horn...
, then called Christea Turris ("Tower of Christ"), and another stretch of walls to its north were built in 1349. Further expansions followed in 1387, 1397 and 1404, enclosing an area larger than that originally allocated to them, stretching from the modern district of Azapkapı north to Şişhane, from there to Tophane and thence to Karaköy. After the Ottoman conquest, the walls were maintained until the 1870s, when most were demolished to facilitate the expansion of the city. Today only the Galata Tower, visible from most of historical Constantinople, remains intact, along with several smaller fragments.
Anadolu and Rumeli Fortresses
The twin forts of AnadoluhisarıAnadoluhisari
Anadoluhisarı is a fortress located in Istanbul, Turkey on the Anatolian side of the Bosporus, which also gives its name to the quarter around it...
and Rumelihisarı
Rumelihisari
Rumelihisarı is a fortress located in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul, Turkey, on a hill at the European side of the Bosporus. It gives the name of the quarter around it. It was built by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II between 1451 and 1452, before he conquered Constantinople...
lie to the north of Constantinople, at the narrowest point of the Bosporus
Bosporus
The Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...
. They were built by the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
to control this strategically vital waterway in preparation for their final assault on Constantinople. Anadoluhisarı (Turkish for "Fortress of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
"), also called Akçehisar and Güzelcehisar ("beautiful fortress") in earlier times, was constructed by Sultan Bayezid I
Bayezid I
Bayezid I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1389 to 1402. He was the son of Murad I and Valide Sultan Gülçiçek Hatun.-Biography:Bayezid was born in Edirne and spent his youth in Bursa, where he received a high-level education...
in 1394, and initially consisted of just a 25 m high, roughly pentagonal watchtower surrounded by a wall. The much larger and more elaborate Rumelihisarı ("Fortress of Rumeli") was built by Sultan Mehmed II
Mehmed II
Mehmed II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from...
in just over four months in 1452. It consists of three large and one small towers, connected by a wall reinforced with 13 small watchtowers. With cannons mounted on its main towers, the fort gave the Ottomans complete control of the passage of ships through Bosporus, a role evoked clearly in its original name, Boğazkesen ("cutter of the strait"). After the conquest of Constantinople, it served as a customs checkpoint and a prison, notably for the embassies of states that were at war with the Empire. After suffering extensive damage in the 1509 earthquake, it was repaired, and was used continuously until the late 19th century.
External links
- 3D reconstruction of the Theodosian Walls at the Byzantium 1200 project
- 3D reconstruction of the Sea Wall at the Byzantium 1200 project
- 3D reconstruction of the Old Golden Gate at the Byzantium 1200 project
- 3D reconstruction of the Golden Gate at the Byzantium 1200 project
- Site of the Yedikule Fortress Museum
- Cross-section of the Theodosian Walls
- Diagram detailing the course of the Land Walls
