ALONG THE WALLS
For a person wishing to become acquainted with a great city, ready to
admire beautiful scenery, and furnished with adequate information,
nothing of the kind can be more interesting and memorable than to make
the circuit of the old fortifications of Constantinople. It is a tour of
thirteen miles, in the course of which, the city, set in the frame of
its splendid natural surroundings, is seen from many different points of
view, while at the same time the historical student travels through
eleven long centuries, crowded with events not only of local interest
but of world-wide importance.
_Along the Walls beside the Sea of Marmora_
The aspect which the city presents towards the Sea of Marmora and the
Asiatic coast is by many persons considered to be the most beautiful
view of Constantinople. It is certainly a very attractive view. Seated
on ground rising with long and steep ascent to the ridge of the
promontory, the city lies spread before you, from the Seraglio Point to
the Seven Towers, over an area five miles in length. As from every other
point so here also, Constantinople shows as much as possible of itself
at a time. It always appears in large dimensions, lofty, spacious,
far-reaching; never descending from its throne, never laying aside its
majesty, but constantly maintaining an imperial mien. Along the sky-line
is an array of domes and minarets that, in brilliant sunshine, gleam as
though made of whitest alabaster. While at the feet of the city lies a
sea of sapphire, lovely as a lake; not so broad as to place the city
into dim distance, yet wide enough to give the great metropolis
sufficient foreground to set off its size and dignity, to obliterate
petty details, to render prominent its salient features, to soften any
ruggedness, to silence its din, and make the quiet grey tones of its
dwellings blend harmoniously with the overhanging heavens and with the
surrounding waters. It is, if the expression is allowable, the most
poetical view of the Queen of Cities. Sometimes, an early watcher on the
Asiatic shore beholds a vision of extraordinary beauty. The silhouette
of the slumbering capital is seen against a darker mass of clouds that
gathered in the west during the hours of the night. Suddenly, in the
hush of dawn, a delicate pink light gleams on a minaret here or a dome
yonder. It tints minaret after minaret, dome after dome, house after
house. It spreads downwards and athwart, transfiguring everything its
rosy fingers touch, until the city, still set against a dark background,
is radiant with indescribable grace. Very beautiful also is the scene
towards sunset, when the slopes descending to the Marmora are in shade,
and the glowing vault of heaven is a canopy of glory; when the windows
in the dome of S. Sophia, as the last beams of day shine through them,
sparkle like jewels in a coronet, and the sea beneath seems woven of
crimson, gold, and purple. Nor can one fail to recall the soft tranquil
beauty of the scene when the Sea of Marmora glitters in the moonlight,
and the golden waters kiss the shadows of the broken towers and
battlements that watched and guarded the city in the days of old.
There is a grave in the British cemetery at Haidar Pasha, which,
contrary to the usual mode of interment, fronts westwards to be turned
towards this side of the city. It is the grave of an Englishwoman,
who, from her Asiatic home near Kadikeui, looked upon these views for
many years, and felt their spell so strongly, that by her express order
she was laid to rest in a position in which she might face their beauty
even in death.
[Illustration: SERAGLIO POINT FROM "THE STONES"
On the Seraglio hill in the middle distance is the palace formerly
occupied by the Sultans.]
The fortifications beside the Sea of Marmora consisted of a wall that,
for the most part, followed closely the sinuosities of the shore, and
was flanked, if the account of a mediæval traveller may be trusted, by
no less than 188 square towers. The works attained their full extent in
three distinct stages, corresponding to the successive periods in the
growth of the city. The portion from the Seraglio Point to the
neighbourhood of Achour Kapoussi represented the bulwarks of old
Byzantium. The portion from the latter point to the vicinity of Daoud
Pasha Kapoussi, the ancient Gate of S. Æmilianus, was added by
Constantine the Great, and possibly the wall bounding the vegetable
gardens of Vlanga Bostan, formed part of the original defences erected
by the founder of New Rome. The extension of the line from Daoud Pasha
Kapoussi to the southern extremity of the landward walls was a
consequence of the enlargement of the city in the reign of Theodosius
II. For the protection of these ramparts against the waves of the
Marmora in angry mood, boulders ranged in loose order were placed in the
sea, at a short distance from the shore, to serve as a breakwater.
Still, like Canute, the emperors of Constantinople often found that the
sea scorned their control, and was the worst foe these bulwarks had
cause to dread. For instance, a furious storm which occurred on the 12th
February 1332 hurled the waves over the battlements, opened breaches,
forced the gates, and poured devastation into every adjoining quarter.
In the spring of 764 the walls near the Seraglio Point were damaged
under most extraordinary circumstances. The preceding winter in the
regions along the northern and the western coasts of the Black Sea had
been so severe, that the sea itself was frozen hard to an immense
distance from the shore. Upon the breaking up of the frost-bound waste,
a long procession of ice-floes entered the Bosporus on their way to the
south. They came in such numbers that for some time the channel at the
Marmora end of the straits was blocked, and men crossed from Scutari to
Galata and to S. Mamas (Beshiktash), and from Chalcedon (Kadikeui) to
the city (Stamboul) with perfect safety. When at length the ice broke
again and moved forward, two huge fragments were flung against the
Seraglio Point by the swollen currents coursing in that direction. The
strange assailants towered above the battlements, and made the city
quake with fear before the weird enemy at whose cold touch strong
bulwarks crumbled to pieces. How frequently these walls suffered from
their exposure to storm and weather appears in the numerous inscriptions
found upon them in honour of restorers of the works. The most extensive
repairs were made in the reign of Theophilus (829-842), and large
portions of the existing walls belong to his reign. But many other
emperors were likewise concerned in maintaining these fortifications in
proper order, as for example, Leo the Wise, Basil II., Manuel Comnenus,
Michael Palæologus, Andronicus II., and Andronicus III. The legends
commemorating repairs are usually formal, laconic records of the names
and titles of the rebuilder of a tower or of the curtain of the wall.
Three of the inscriptions, however, allow us to see more into the heart
of the persons they celebrate, and bring us into touch with the spirit
of the times. One of them, forming a line 60 feet long, is found on the
wall to the north of Deïrmen Kapoussi, and reads to the following
effect:--"Possessing Thee, O Christ, as a wall that cannot be broken,
Theophilus the pious sovereign and emperor, erected this wall upon new
foundations; which (wall) Lord of All, guard with Thy might, and display
to the end of time standing unshaken and unmoved." The second
inscription referred to speaks more directly of the injury sustained by
the wall owing to the proximity of the sea:--"In the year 1024, Basil,
the pious sovereign, erected from the foundations this tower, which the
dashing of the sea, battering it for a long time with many and violent
waves, compelled to fall." The third inscription tells that in the year
1448, only five years before the fall of the city, George, the Despot of
Servia, contributed funds towards the repair of these defences, thus
showing clearly how well he understood that the fate of his kingdom was
bound up with the fate of Constantinople.
[Illustration: THE SERAGLIO LIGHTHOUSE AND SCUTARI
The lighthouse occupies a prominent position near the old palace of the
Sultans overlooking the Sea of Marmora.]
The fortifications beside the Sea of Marmora were not called to occupy a
prominent place in the active defence of the city; that is to say, they
were never the object of a serious hostile attack. This was only what
might be expected so long as the Empire maintained its naval
superiority to the enemies with whom it was called to contend. But the
Empire was not always master of the sea. And the immunity of these
fortifications from attack was then due to the difficulties which the
currents that sweep along this shore place in the way of the approach of
ships within striking distance. The fear that the currents would carry
his ships out to sea was the reason why Dandolo refused to bring the
fleet of the Fourth Crusade into action against this side of the
capital. The nearest semblance of an attack upon these fortifications
was when Heraclius, in 610, brought up a fleet from Carthage to depose
the tyrant Phocas, and took up a position before the Harbour of Julian
or Sophia, the remains of which are seen in the quarter of Kadriga
Limani below the Hippodrome. But that was more in the nature of a
hostile demonstration than an active assault, for the citizens welcomed
Heraclius as a deliverer, and carried Phocas to him as a prisoner. Still
the comparative security of these walls from attack did not warrant
leaving them in a state to tempt an enemy to strike a blow, and
accordingly, though sometimes neglected in time of peace, they were
promptly put in order whenever a hostile fleet was expected. This was
particularly the case during the period of the Palæologi, when Genoa and
Venice and the Ottoman Turks ruled on the sea, and the naval strength of
the Empire had fallen into utter decay. In the siege of 1453, the
Turkish fleet blockaded this side of the city from the Seraglio Point to
Vlanga.
In following the course of these walls to note the arrangements of the
city, and to recall historical associations, only a very brief mention
of what is most prominent and memorable is here possible. Beginning at
the head of the promontory, we have first the eastern portion of the
Seraglio Grounds, presenting to view the crags upon which stood the
Acropolis of old Byzantium. To become the master of that hilltop, with
its wonderful outlook and great strategic value was the ambition of
Xenophon and "The Ten Thousand" on their famous retreat from Persia, of
Philip of Macedon, of Severus Septimius, of Constantine the Great, not
to mention other aspirants. After the foundation of Constantinople,
until Turkish days, the site of the Acropolis formed an ordinary part of
the city, the most conspicuous edifice on that position being the Church
of S. Irene. There also was the hospital of Sampson, as well as that of
Eubulus. Among the buildings on the level tract below the Acropolis
were two theatres, inherited from Byzantium, one of which has left its
stamp in the hollow ground now occupied by the vegetable gardens to the
rear of Deïrmen Kapoussi. Scattered over the adjoining territory was a
crowd of churches in which saints encamped to guard this exposed point
of the city; a host led by S. Barbara, patroness of arms, S. George, the
Slayer of the Dragon, S. Mary Hodegetria, with her icon ascribed to S.
Luke, and regarded as a palladium. The Mangana or Arsenal, stored with
military engines for the defence of the walls, also stood in this
vicinity. The vaulted substructures near the ruins of Indjili Kiosk
belonged to the Palace of the Mangana, to which the imperial household
resorted to enjoy the cool breezes that winged their way down the
Bosporus from the north. Here also was a public park, the Philopation,
and an atrium built by Justinian the Great, crowded on summer
afternoons, when this side of the city is in shade, by people who loved
to look out upon the sparkling water, and the hills of the opposite
Asiatic shore, resplendent in the mellow light of the setting sun. The
fine building that formed the Thermæ of Arcadia was in this
neighbourhood, and a portion of the polo grounds, Tzycanisterion,
attached to the palace of the Byzantine emperors.
[Illustration: CRIMEAN MEMORIAL BRITISH CEMETERY, HAIDAR PASHA
Erected to the memory of the British soldiers and sailors who fell in
the Crimean War.]
Fifteen years after the Turkish occupation, Sultan Mehemet the Conqueror
transferred his residence from his palace on the hill now surmounted by
the War Office to this quarter of the city, and for the security of his
new abode built the wall that, on its way across the promontory, from
the Sea of Marmora to the Golden Horn, passes to the north of S. Sophia.
In its general plan the Seraglio was a series of three courts, opening
one into the other; and around and within them, embowered in groves of
plane-trees and of cypresses, rose the numerous and picturesque edifices
which served the convenience of the imperial household. But however
inferior in the magnificence created by art, no royal abode has ever
been invested by nature with the beauty and lordliness surrounding that
in which the Ottoman Sultans sat enthroned from Mehemet the Conqueror to
Abdul Medjid, with its grand outlook over Asia, Europe, and the great
waterway between the lands on the north and on the south.
"It was at once a royal palace, a fortress, and a sanctuary; here was
the brain and heart of Islam, a city within a city, inhabited by a
people, and guarded by an army, embracing within its walls an infinite
variety of edifices, places of pleasure or of horror; where the Sultans
were born, ascended the throne, were deposed, imprisoned, strangled;
where all conspiracies began and the cry of rebellion was first heard;
where for three centuries the eyes of anxious Europe, timid Asia, and
frightened Africa were fixed, as on a smoking volcano, threatening ruin
on all sides."
The slopes which descend from S. Sophia and the Hippodrome to the Sea of
Marmora, immediately outside the Seraglio Enclosure, are also haunted by
memories of splendour and power, for upon them stood the great palace of
the Emperors of New Rome from the time of Constantine the Great to
almost the end of the Byzantine Empire. The site did not command so
extensive a view of the Bosporus as the Seraglio enjoyed, nor had it the
outlook of the latter upon the Golden Horn and the busy life of the
harbour. But its prospect over the Sea of Marmora and the hills and
mountains of the Asiatic coast, rising to the snows of Mount Olympus or
merged in the pale blue of the distant horizon, was wider. It had also
the advantage of a sunnier and more temperate climate. The site was
furthermore recommended by its proximity to the Hippodrome, as direct
communication between the palace and that arena of the city's public
life, in serious or gay mood, was of paramount importance in
Constantinople as at Rome. We must therefore imagine these slopes wooded
with trees, and crowded with stately buildings, often domed, for the
accommodation of a Court which sought, in pomp and luxury never
surpassed, to find all that power and pleasure can do to satisfy the
human heart. As in the case of Byzantine churches, so in the edifices
forming the "Sacred Palace," artistic effort was chiefly devoted to the
decoration of the interior, and it was with similar means, marble
revetments and mosaics, that artistic effects were produced.
The throne-room, for instance, was, as we shall find in the sequel,
almost a facsimile of the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. Like that
church it was an octagonal hall enclosed in a square, and surmounted by
a dome pierced by windows.
Each division of the octagon formed a bay under a semi-dome, and above
the bays was a rich entablature, with a cornice that projected so as to
constitute a gallery. The floor was paved with slabs of porphyry and
variegated marbles, arranged to form beautiful designs and set in
borders of silver, while walls and vaults gleamed with mosaics. The
hall was entered from the west, and in the bay directly opposite stood
the throne, with an icon of Christ in mosaic in the conch above it. The
bay immediately to the south of the throne was the emperor's
robing-room, leading to a chapel in which his robes of state, his crowns
and arms, and two enamelled gold shields, studded with pearls and
precious stones, were kept under the guardianship of S. Theodore. The
other state rooms of the palace were all varieties of the same type,
displaying more or less skill and taste, according to the fluctuations
of art in Constantinople. Of all the magnificence that once adorned
these slopes, nothing remains but unshapely masses of brickwork, broken
shafts, fallen capitals and empty sarcophagi! Slopes that vied with the
Palatine as a seat of power, they are without a vestige of the grandeur
that lingers around the ruined home of the Cæsars! The higher part of
the site of the palace is now occupied by the Mosque of Sultan Achmed,
the six minarets of which, combined with the four minarets of S. Sophia,
make so striking a feature in the aspect of this part of the city. Upon
the lower slopes lives a Turkish population that never dreams of the
splendour buried beneath its humble dwellings.
Close to Tchalady Kapou, and at the water's edge, are the ungainly ruins
of the residence of Justinian the Great and Theodora, before their
accession to the throne. Here began the romance of their lives. In
course of time additional buildings were put up at this point, and the
group thus formed became the Marine Residence attached to the Great
Palace. Here was the little harbour at the service of the Court, with
marble steps descending to the water from a quay paved with marble, and
adorned with many marble figures of lions, bears, bulls, and ostriches.
Here the Emperor embarked or disembarked when moving in his imperial
barge from one part of the city to another by water. One of the pieces
of statuary, representing a lion attacking a bull, bestowed upon this
Marine Residence the name Bucoleon (The Bull and Lion), under which
designation it is frequently mentioned in Byzantine history. There was
enacted the tragedy of the assassination of the noble Nicephorus Phocas
by John Zimisces, with the connivance of the Empress Theophano, the
victim's wife; a typical instance of the intrigues and crimes that often
dishonoured the palace of the Byzantine emperors. The story has
recently been told by the brilliant pen of Mr. Frederic Harrison, and
therefore must not be repeated. But the visitor to the spot can recall
the event with startling vividness, so well preserved is the stage on
which the tragedy was acted. Directly opposite, on the Asiatic shore, is
Chalcedon, where the conspirators joined Zimisces to proceed to the
scene of their cruel work. The Sea of Marmora over which, on that fatal
night, a snowstorm spread a veil to hide the boat which bore the
conspirators across the sleeping waters, comes up to the very base of
the palace. From one of the palace windows overhanging the sea, a
basket, attached to a rope, was let down again and again to the boat,
and again and again drawn up, with one conspirator in it at a
time--Zimisces being the last--until the whole band stood within the
imperial abode. And somewhere in the vaulted building we still find at
the water's edge, and whose ruins seem haunted by evil ghosts, was the
chamber in which the doomed emperor lay slumbering on the floor, and was
rudely awakened to know all the bitterness of ingratitude and the
sharpness of a cruel death. Geography and topography are certainly the
eyes of history.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF SULTAN AHMED I.
This mosque is beautifully decorated with blue and green tiles; on the
right is the minber (pulpit) built of marble intricately carved and
delicately tinted; behind it is one of the four great marble columns
that support the roof.]
To the west of the Bucoleon is the beautiful Church of SS. Sergius and
Bacchus, erected by Justinian the Great; for some account of which the
reader is referred to the chapters on the churches of the city. The
district extending thence to the ancient Gate of S. Æmilianus (Daoud
Pasha Kapoussi) is remarkable for having been occupied by the artificial
harbours, constructed, from time to time, on the southern side of the
city in the interest of commerce, or for the use of the imperial navy.
They were four in number, and, notwithstanding the changes of centuries,
they have left their impress upon the ground to a degree which allows
their site and contour to be clearly identified. First in the order of
position, though not of time, came the Harbour of the Emperor Julian,
below the Hippodrome. It has already been noticed in the history of the
making of Constantinople. It was used for some time even after the
Turkish Conquest, but was ultimately abandoned for the deeper water
found along the shores of the Golden Horn. The Harbour of the
Kontoscalion followed; in the quarter which the Greek population still
designates by that old name, but which is commonly known as Koum
Kapoussi. It has been filled in, but the mole remains, as well as a
considerable portion of the wall around the basin of the harbour. The
entrance could be closed against an enemy by great gates of iron bars,
and in bad weather three hundred galleys, of fifty or a hundred pairs of
oars, might be seen taking refuge here, waiting for a favourable wind.
Next in order was the Harbour of Kaisarius, known also as the Neorion or
Dockyard of the Heptascalon, which stood where the Turkish quarter of
Tulbenkdji Djamissi is now situated. But few traces of it are left.
Indeed its position had been forgotten, and its distinctness from the
other harbours along this shore ignored, until 1819, when a great fire
in the district revealed the fact that the quarter of Tulbenkdji
Djamissi stood in the basin of an old harbour, enclosed by a wall built
in three tiers of huge blocks. This agreed with other indications of the
presence of a harbour at this point hitherto left unexplained--a mole in
front of the shore of the quarter, and a gap in the mole forming an
entrance to which corresponded an old opening in the city walls, now
closed by masonry of Turkish construction. It harmonised also with the
description which the historian Pachymeres gives of a harbour
constructed or restored by the Emperor Michael Palæologus on this side
of the city. Here Phocas placed troops to oppose the landing of
Heraclius, and here also the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, in 673,
stationed his ships, armed with Greek fire, to await the fleet of the
Saracens in the first siege of Constantinople by that formidable foe.
Last in order of position was the harbour on the site of the vegetable
gardens of Vlanga Bostan, a work, as we have seen, belonging to the time
of the founder of the city, and known first as the Harbour of
Eleutherius, its original constructor, and later as the Harbour of
Theodosius I., who improved it. Its mole and extensive portions of the
walls around it remain, and carry thought back to the city's earliest
days.
These harbours are a monument to the great commercial activity of the
city during the Middle Ages, and formed a feature in the life and aspect
of the place which has disappeared. Occasionally, in the fruit-season, a
considerable number of the ships and large caïques engaged in the
coasting trade between the city and the ports of the Sea of Marmora
anchor off the points once occupied by these harbours, and help the
imagination to recall the animation, the busy crowds, the varied
merchandise, the picturesque craft and strange crews that made what
is now an almost silent shore one of the liveliest and most interesting
quarters of New Rome. Owing to the sand thrown up against this coast,
all these harbours demanded frequent cleaning and restoration, and had a
hard struggle for existence. They were at length neglected, and, one
after another, turned into dry land on which to plant market gardens, or
build dwellings for the poor.
[Illustration: PRINKIPO (PRINCES ISLANDS)
A favourite summer resort of wealthy residents of Constantinople.]
The tract of the city extending from Vlanga Bostan to the landward walls
was noted for the number and importance of its churches and monasteries.
Conspicuous among them was the Church and monastery of S. Mary
Peribleptos in the district of Psamatia. It was destroyed by fire in
1782, and is represented by the modern Armenian Church of S. George,
generally styled, after the cistern beneath the old edifice, Soulou
Monastir.
The Church of S. John Studius, now a sad ruin, stood likewise in this
part of the city. So did the Church and monastery of S. Diomed, upon
whose steps one day, towards sunset, a way-worn youth in quest of
fortune lay down to rest, after his long journey from Macedonia, and
rose to become, in a capital where strange careers were possible, the
Emperor Basil I. He founded a dynasty that occupied the throne of the
Byzantine Empire for two centuries, and counted among its members such
notable sovereigns as Basil II. the Slayer of the Bulgarians, Nicephorus
Phocas the Conqueror of the Saracens, John Zimisces who drove the
Russians out of Bulgaria across the Danube.