Modern Istanbul is ancient Constantinople, the epicentre of Byzantium. Its strategic position on the Bosphorous, connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean, ensured that it was an important place from at least 657 BC.
It became seriously important in 324 AD when the Emperor Constantine the Great declared it the ‘New Rome’ and laid out a vast new city to serve as capital of his empire. It was inaugurated in 330 before Constantine died in 337 (aged 65 years).
The city continued to grow under his successors Theodosius I and Theodosius II , who built the eponymous Theodosian Walls in 413.
In 527 the Emperor Justinian I took the throne and launched an ambitious program of building (including the Aya Sofya) and reconquest of the western empire (from Ravenna). His expansionist ambitions were not realised and exhausted the Byzantine Empire’s treasury, though Constantinople remained a major force for several hundred years.
It was sacked in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade and finally captured by the Ottomans in 1453 .
We saw many vestiges of the Byzantine era while staying in Istanbul, but there were four monuments that gave us the strongest sense of Constantinople. The Aya Sofya , Theodosian Walls, Chora Church, and Church of the Pammakaristos.
The historic areas of Instanbul are World Heritage listed and the Aya Sofya (Hagia Sofia / Church of the Divine Wisdom) is the standout.
Built by Justinian in 537 as a statement in his campaign to reunite the eastern and western empires, it stood supreme as the greatest church in christiandom for 900 years. Mehmet the Conquerer had it converted to a mosque, then in 1935 Attaturk proclaimed it a museum accessible to all.
It is a remarkable edifice that can only be fully appreciated when you are inside it. We stayed in Istanbul at the start and end of this trip and visited the Aya Sofya twice. Like Athens and the Acropolis, it seemed inconceivable to us that we would be in Istanbul and not go to see the Aya Sofya.
On another day we caught a ferry from central Istanbul up the Goldern Horn to Ayvansaray in the western districts. This was a great experience as it took us outside the walls of the ancient city and enabled us to see several important monuments as we walked back into the centre of Instanbul.
First up we explored the Theodosian Walls. These massive fortifications were built by Theodosios II then added to by Mehmet the Conqueror.
From here we could walk to the Chora Church which is an amazing ‘museum’ of byzantine art and architecture. It was built in the late 11th C and most of the interior decoration dates from 1312. The mosaics and frescoes are simply stunning.
We then walked on to the Pammakaristos Church. Built in the late 11th C or early 12th C it was adapted into the Fethiye Mosque (the “mosque of the conquest”) in 1591. It’s now a museum with the largest amount of Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul after the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church.
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