Roman and Byzantine Istanbul

The Byzantine era in Istanbul is considered to have begun in 300BC with Emperor Constantine the Great announcing the city as Byzantium and the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Istanbul’s unique and strategic position rendering the city favourable as a capital.
From that time on, the city came to be known as Constantinople, or the ‘city of Constantine’. It also came to be referred to as ‘New Rome’ due to its resemblance to that great western city. Both cities are spread across seven hills with the settlement of Old Istanbul confined by the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn, while those of Rome were established on either side of the River Tiber.
Shortly after the city became the capital, the power of Rome shifted eastwards and Constantinople became a centre for Christianity and Greek culture. During the reign of the Byzantine Empire the city was adorned with many artistic and architectural works. Roman temples were replaced by churches and many new churches, including the Hagia Sophia, which became the largest building in the world for a thousand years, were built in the four corners of the city.
During Constantine’s imperial rule the city witnessed great change and development with the hippodrome, aqueducts, city walls, palaces and squares being built. Towards the late Byzantine era Constantinople became the largest and wealthiest city in continental Europe.
The city became dilapidated after the Fourth Crusades, though 1261 marked a year of revival for the Byzantine Empire which had already been weakened greatly. The urban population decreased to just a hundred thousand from half a million as Byzantium lost its previous reputation as the strongest imperial power: the vast empire had shrunk so much that it now only occupied the area of Constantinople. Soon after the city became the target of the Ottomans and the Byzantine emperors accepted their hegemony and began to pay taxes to them. In mid-14th century the Ottomans began to capture small towns surrounding the city and shut down the supply routes that led to it.
Mehmet II spent a year preparing his attack on Constantinople. Molten metal was poured to make cannons and the Rumeli Fortress was built in order to bring the Bosphorus under their control as the number of soldiers was doubled. In April 1453 the first Ottoman advance troops appeared at the gates of Constantinople and after a siege of eight weeks, ships were hauled over land to the Golden Horn from Kasımpaşa. What was a shock for the Byzantines became a legend in the city’s history. Constantinople was seized by Sultan Mehmet II, who became known as Mehmet the Conqueror, and the city was announced as the new capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Source: How to Istanbul

Click here for a list of Byzantine and Roman monuments of Istanbul

The Harbors and the Maritime Neighborhoods of Constantinople

From the article by P. Magdalino, The Maritime Neighborhoods of Constantinople: Commercial and Residential Functions, Sixth to Twelfth Centuries, DOP 54, 2000

Constantinople, like New York, is a city not only by the sea, but also, to a large extent, in the sea. The effect of the sea on the fabric of the city is strongly pervasive, and it makes sense to start from the sea when investigating urban neighborhoods. By far the best evidence for the texture of urban neighborhoods comes from twelfth-century documents concerning the real estate conceded to the Italian maritime republics of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa—real estate that lay close to the shores of the Golden Horn. Since the sea is not far from any part of the city or its suburbs, and is indeed visible from almost anywhere within the Theodosian walls, it may well be asked what is meant by a maritime neighborhood. What distinguishes it from an inland neighborhood? Where does the one end and the other begin? Eleven of the twelve urban regions of the fifth-century Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae bordered on the sea, but only Regions I and IX had a long coastline.1 Most of the other regions extended from a narrow stretch of coast to a narrow bloc of the city center. However, the regions were administrative rather than social or economic units. If we take into account the topography, the layout of public spaces, and the location of public monuments, we can draw a broad working distinction between those parts of the city that looked primarily toward the sea and those orientated toward the central avenue (Mese), the fora, and the great public buildings. Only in rare cases was a focal point such as the Strategion or the Leomakellon situated so close to the sea as to constitute a rival attraction.

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The Architecture of Chora Monastery

The Byzantine Monastery of Chora (or Kariye Camii), originally built in the 5th c. and rebuilt in the 14th c. stands today as one of the most beautiful monuments of Byzantine Istanbul. It also has some of the most exquisite mosaics surviving from the Byzantine period. Yet the changes operated throghout centuries altered its original shape.

Here is an article about its architecture and its changes. 

Like the mosaics and frescoes, the architecture of the Kariye is similarly artfully distorted, chaotic, asymmetrical, and decorative. If we isolate a single figure, for example, Joseph, from Joseph Taking the Virgin to His House, compositional attitudes similar to those seen in the architecture are evident. Students of life drawing would cringe at this figure – we are not sure if he is coming or going. Yet, if each specific feature is analyzed independently, it is more than satisfactory in itself. The artist is composing on a small scale, of individual bits and pieces, without attempting to relate the pieces to the whole.

Byzantine Istanbul in 1967 from British Pathé

A 1967 documentary of Istanbul includes several images of the walls of Constantinople and other interesting stuff about the people and places of the City.

Byzantine Constantinople in Medieval Greek Texts

Descriptions of monuments of Byzantine Constantinople appeared in several sources dating from the late antique and Byzantine period. The collection of the so-called Patria has been published in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series (Albrecht Berger, Accounts of Medieval Constantinople: The Patria. Dumbarton Oaks medieval library, 24.   Cambridge, MA; London:  Harvard University Press, 2013.  Pp. xxi, 357 ). Here is a review of this exciting and helpful volume: 

Accounts of Medieval Constantinople is a facing-page translation into English by Albrecht Berger of four texts from a group of five accounts of the medieval city known collectively as the Patria of Constantinople. The five texts, which were originally brought together as a compilation in the late tenth century, were first edited and published as a group by Theodore Preger as Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum (Leipzig 1902). They include in the following order a report on the early origins of Constantinople based on and attributed to the sixth- century author Hesychios of Miletos that was added to in the tenth century; an anonymously-authored eighth-century work known as the Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai (Brief historical notes) which records a series of observations and anecdotes about the city’s architectural and sculptured patrimony; a second anonymously-authored text of the ninth century about statues that not only relies heavily on the text of the Parastaseis for its materials but also shares its anecdotal format; a ninth- or tenth-century text about the city’s building in the same style; and, finally, a narrative account of the building of Hagia Sophia from the ninth century. The current volume, which uses Preger’s edition of the text with only the most minor and sensible of emendations, includes an annotated translation of Hesychios together with the ninth- and tenth-century accounts of sculpture and architecture, the narration on Hagia Sophia included. There being no need to reinvent the wheel, it excludes the Parastaseis, which was translated and published independently in a 1984 edition by Averil Cameron and Judith Herrin.1 A brief introduction by Berger accompanies the translation, elucidating the literary genre of patria and the particular nature of the Constantinopolitan texts before concluding with some observations on their usefulness as historical documents. A discussion of the Patria’s manuscript tradition together with a glossary of terms, a bibliography, and an index completes the volume.

Click here for the rest of the review 

Constantinople Civil Architecture: Valens Aqueduct

Constantinople's lack of sufficient water resources forced the rulers to rethink the system of water supplies. The construction of the main aqueduct, a work of fine engineering, which brought the much needed water was finished by the emperor Valens in the 4th c. AD.
Here is a map with its location in modern Istanbul:

And some pictures: 

The aqueduct was a landmark of the city in Ottoman times as well:

Column of Constantine the Great, Istanbul

This is a Roman column built in 330 to commemorate 

the emperor Constantine the Great (306-337). 

It is placed on the main street of Constantinople

 between the Hippodrome and the Forum of Theodosius.

A reconstruction of the original column 

with the representation of the emperor

 as the pagan god Apollo