Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (21 page)

In SS. Sergius and Bacchus, as in almost all of the surviving Byzantine churches of the city, we must simply use our imagination in order to recapture the extraordinary beauty of its original condition. The walls, like those of Haghia Sophia, were revetted with veined and variegated marbles; the vaults and domes glittered with mosaics. “By the sheen of its marbles it was more resplendent than the sun,” says Procopius, “and everywhere it was filled profusely with gold.”

SS. Sergius and Bacchus continued to serve as a church for nearly 1,000 years after its founding, but then in the first decade of the sixteenth century it was converted into a mosque. Its patron at that time was Hüseyin A
ğ
a, who was Kap
ı
a
ğ
as
ı
, or Chief of the White Eunuchs, in the reign of Beyazit II. Hüseyin A
ğ
a’s tomb can still be seen in the garden to the north of the church. The building is now called Küçük Aya Sofya Camii, the mosque of Little Haghia Sophia, because of its supposed resemblance to the Great Church.

Just to the north of the church, on Küçük Aya Sofya Caddesi, we find an ancient bath, Çardakl
ı
Hamam. An inscription shows that it was built in 1503 by a Kap
ı
a
ğ
as
ı
under Beyazit II; its date and its proximity to Küçük Aya Sofya Camii suggest that the founder may have been Hüseyin A
ğ
a. The hamam is ruinous and unusable but must have been quite grand.

Returning to the church we pass through the courtyard once again and leave by the gate through which we first entered. Retracing our steps for a short distance, we then turn left to follow a winding lane which passes under the railroad line and eventually leads us out to the Marmara shore. Here we turn left and follow the ancient Byzantine sea walls along the Marmara.

ALONG THE SEA WALLS

The sea walls in the section along which we are walking were originally constructed by Constantine the Great, ending where his land walls met the sea at Samatya. When the Theodosian walls were built in the following century, the Marmara sea walls were extended to meet them. During the ninth century, the Marmara walls were almost completely rebuilt by the Emperor Theophilus, who sought to strengthen the city’s maritime defences against the Saracens. The Marmara defences consisted of a single line of walls 12–15 metres high studded with 188 towers at regular intervals. These walls stretched from the Marble Tower to Saray Point, a total distance of eight kilometres, and were pierced by 13 sea-gates. At Saray Point, the Marmara walls joined up with those along the Golden Horn, thus completing the maritime defence system. Although much of the fortifications along the Marmara have been destroyed in recent years, that which remains is still impressive, particularly the walls and towers along our present itinerary.

Almost immediately in front of SS. Sergius and Bacchus is a small postern gate doubtless for the use of the monastery that was attached to the church. Upon closer inspection, we find that the posts of the gateway are carved with a long inscription in Greek, containing a conflation or cento from Habakkuk and Psalms. It seems to be generally agreed that these inscribed doorposts once formed the base of the celebrated equestrian statue of Justinian which anciently stood in the Augustaeum.

A short distance beyond this gate we come to the ruins of another and grander postern, whose Turkish name is Çatlad
ı
Kap
ı
, or the Cracked Gate. The marble sides and archway of the gate are finely carved with acanthus-leaf decorations as well as with a large monogram of Justinian. This postern is probably the one which was called the Imperial Marine Gate, since it appears to have been one of the entrances from the port of Bucoleon, the private harbour of the Great Palace. It was also called the Porta Leonis, from the statues of the two lions which stood on the façade of the Palace of Bucoleon, one of the seaside buildings of the Great Palace. (These are the lions which we saw in the Archaeological Museum.) The main entryway from the port to the palace was by a monumental staircase in the huge tower just beyond the Çatlad
ı
Kap
ı
. As we pass this tower we see all that now remains of Bucoleon: the eastern loggia of the palace with its three marble-framed windows and a vaulted room behind them. Below the windows some projecting corbels indicate that a balcony ran along the façade, suspended over a marble quay below. Notice the curious-looking row of large square marble slabs built into the lower part of the wall; if you insert your hand under them you will find that they are Doric capitals of the fifth century B.C., doubtless from some ancient temple that stood nearby.

These ruins are all that now remain above ground of the Great Palace of Byzantium, whose pavilions and gardens covered the Marmara slopes of the First Hill. The palace was first built by Constantine the Great at the time when he founded his new capital. Much of the Palace was destroyed during the Nika rebellion in 532, but it was soon afterwards rebuilt and considerably enlarged by Justinian. Later emperors, particularly Basil the Macedonian in the ninth century, restored and extended the palace and adorned it with works of art. The Great Palace was divided into several different establishments: the Sacred Palace and the Palaces of Daphne and Chalke, which were located near the present site of the Blue Mosque; the Palaces of Magnaura and Mangana, which stood to the south-east of Haghia Sophia, on the slope of the hill leading down the Marmara; and the sea-palace of Bucoleon. In its time, the Great Palace had no equal in the world and medieval travellers have left us awed descriptions of its splendours. The Emperors of Byzantium lived and ruled there for nearly nine centuries, up until the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. After the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in 1261 the Great Palace was found to be in a state of advanced decay and was never afterwards restored. Instead, the later emperors abandoned the palaces by the Marmara and took up their residence in the Palace of Blachernae, in the north-western corner of the city. At the time of the Turkish Conquest, the Great Palace was completely in ruins. Shortly after he entered the city, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror walked through the ruined halls of the palace and was so saddened as to recite a melancholy distich by the Persian poet Saadi: “The spider is the curtain-holder in the Palace of the Caesars. The owl hoots its night call on the Towers of Aphrasiab.”

Passing the Palace of Bucoleon, we continue walking along the sea-walls. The next defence-tower we pass, in the angle just to the east of Bucoleon, was once the Pharos or Lighthouse of Byzantium. In modern times it has been replaced by another light house farther along the sea-walls.

About 400 metres beyond the Bucoleon we come to one of the ancient public gateways in the sea-wall. (The gate is just beyond the Kalyon Hotel and a little restaurant called Kar
ı
ş
ma Sen, which means literally Mind Your Own Business.) The Byzantine name of this gateway is unknown, but in Ottoman times it was called Ah
ı
r Kap
ı
, or the Stable Gate, because it led to the Sultan’s mews nearby. Perhaps it had the same name in Byzantium, for the Emperor Michael III is known to have built some marble stables in this same area in the middle of the ninth century.

The footsore stroller can, at this point, rest in the teahouse beside the Stable Gate, while the more ambitious take a short detour a little farther along the sea-walls.

A short way along in a turn-around, steps lead to a football field behind the sea-walls from where there is a good view of the outer walls of Topkap
ı
Saray
ı
marching up the hill towards Haghia Sophia, with seven towers in the fortifications visible.

About 500 metres beyond the Stable Gate, past the modern lighthouse, we come to a marble structure called the Incili Kö
ş
k, or the Pavilion of the Pearl. An inscription on the fountain which is built into the kiosk attributes its founding to Sinan Pa
ş
a and gives the date A.H. 986 (A.D. 1578). This is all that remains of the Sinan Pa
ş
a Kö
ş
kü, one of the outer pavilions of Topkap
ı
Saray
ı
. This kiosk was a particular favourite of Murat III. During his last illness in January 1595, the Sultan spent his days in this kiosk, listening sadly to the dirges of his musicians, waiting for death to come. One evening the Ottoman fleet sailed by on its return from the south and, learning that the Sultan was in the kiosk, fired a volley in his honour. But the volley shook loose the plaster ceiling of the kiosk and caused it to come showering down on the Sultan and his musicians. “And so is destroyed the kiosk of my life,” said Murat sadly, whereupon he was carried back to his death-bed in the Saray.

A short distance beyond the Incili Kö
ş
kü we see the façade of an ancient church built into the sea-walls, with blocked-up doors, windows, niches, and a huge arch rising to the top of the wall. These are the substructures of the church of St. Saviour Philanthropes, built in the first half of the twelfth century by Alexius I Comnenus, one of the greatest of the Byzantine emperors. There is a tradition that the Emperor, himself, was buried in this church, but no trace of his tomb has ever been found. In times past, one could penetrate through one of the openings into a vast crypt with towering vaults and massy walls, obviously of several different periods; but the church has now been sealed off and one can no longer enter its interior.

We now retrace our steps so as to return to the Stable Gate. As we do so we might notice, just beyond the Incili Kö
ş
k, the huge vaults which were probably once part of the substructure of the Palace of Mangana. Beyond these substructures we pass a series of small posterns which once gave entrance to the area which in Ottoman times was the lower garden of the Saray. This whole area is filled with subterranean vaults, crypts and complex passages which belonged to the substructure of the various churches, monasteries and palaces which covered this part of the First Hill. Most of these substructures are now almost impossible to access, either for natural causes or because the area is controlled by the military.

We now return to the Stable Gate and pass through the double portal in the sea-walls to re-enter the city. After passing through the gate we immediately turn left on Ah
ı
r Kap
ı
Soka
ğ
ı
and then take the first right, Keresteci Hakk
ı
Soka
ğ
ı
, which we follow around a left bend until it comes to Ak B
ı
y
ı
k Meydan
ı
, the Square of the White Moustache. This is the centre of one of the most picturesque neighbourhoods in old Stamboul, and its winding lanes have some of the most marvellous names in town: the Street of the Bushy Beard, the Street of the Sweating Whiskers, the Street of the ShameFaced, the Street of Ibrahim of Black Hell, and the Avenue of the White Moustache, from which the square and the surrounding neighbourhood are named.

Before leaving the Square of the White Moustache, do not fail to notice the two fountains there, especially the one on the left side of the square, the Ak B
ı
y
ı
k Meydan Çe
ş
mesi. There are more than 400 of these çe
ş
mes in Stamboul alone, ranging in size from the monumental street fountains such as that of Sultan Ahmet III, to simple wall-fountains. For centuries these çe
ş
mes were the only sources of water for the ordinary people of Istanbul, and up until recent years there are many sections of the city which still depend mainly upon them. The Ak B
ı
y
ı
k Meydan Çe
ş
mesi is an attractive example of a Turkish baroque fountain, with its rich decoration of flowers and cypress trees. The chronogram on the fountain reads as follows: “When the mother of Ali Pa
ş
a, Vezir in the reign of Sultan Mahmut I, quenched the thirst of the people with the pure and clear water of her charity, Riza of Be
ş
ikta
ş
, a Nak
ş
ibendi dervish, uttered the following epigram: ‘Come and drink the water of eternal life from this fountain’.” The numerical value of the words in the last phrase gives the year of foundation as A.H. 1147 or A.D. 1734.

We leave Ak B
ı
y
ı
k Meydan
ı
by the street opposite the fountain, Ak B
ı
y
ı
k Caddesi. This takes us under the railway line and turns right uphill until it intersects the broad Mimar Mehmet A
ğ
a Caddesi, where we turn left. We then take the first turning on our left, Torun Soka
ğ
ı
, a little street which brings us directly behind the Blue Mosque. A short distance along this street we come to the Mosaic Museum, the next stop on our itinerary. Entering the museum grounds, we first pass through a garden filled with remnants of ancient columns and capitals, uncovered during excavations which began in 1935. These fragments, together with the mosaic pavements inside the museum, were once part of the Great Palace, the colonnaded way known as the Mosaic Peri style.