Well, we’ve had a chance for a bit of a break halfway along the Walls; there is after all, rather a lot of them to cover. A chance to absorb what you’ve seen so far and start to ask questions.
Like other man-made physical boundaries such as the Great Wall of China, the Theodosian Walls occupy both a liminal and a heterotopic space, at once a physical boundary as well as a mental one, both dividing you from the ‘other’. Did it like the Great Wall keep people ‘in’ as much as keep barbarians (and they are always barbarians beyond a wall) ‘out’.
Also, do walls work? In the short term, yes. Obviously so in both these cases as the technology that built them was superior to the threat they were designed to counter. However, a wall once built becomes reactive and is either superseded by better technology, geographical limitations or the entropy of those it is designed to protect. All of which, to a greater or lesser extent, is what you will see as we carry on our little tour.
What I’ve described so far has been Constantinople in its pomp, where we start again is with the melancholy vista of…..
14/. Mesoteichion
This stretch was known as the Mesoteichion and was the most vulnerable, being in the Lycus valley. In the final siege it was below the level of the Ottoman guns and suffered badly, still showing the damage from the pounding it took. It was here that the walls were finally breached on the morning of May 29, 1453 as Janissaries fought their way up onto the towers of the outer wall, then across the peribolos and over the inner wall into the city. Still sadly battered about, it presents the most melancholy view, like an ageing pugilist, punched once too often, slumped on his stool.
15/. The Fifth Military Gate/ Hücum Kapı
The river Lycus crossed into the city just South of this point through the walls. According to the few sources available, this was the command post of Constantine XI Dragases during the final siege. He was last seen in this area with his companions Theophilus Paleologus, Don John of Toledo and John Dalmata, none of whom survived. It Turkish name means the ‘Gate of the Assault’.
16/. Gate of Charisius
Also known as Porta Adrianopoleos after the road to Adrianopole that exited here. Also called Porta Polyandriou, the Gate of the Cemetery from the large necropolis that still exists outside the city walls. Mehmet II. From here you can cut inside the city walls to….
17/. Church of St. Saviour in Chorea
The name means ‘in the country’ as the original church was outside the Walls of Constantine. The name remained when it was enclosed by the Theodosian Walls as a play on Psalm 27:13 Christ as the ‘land’ or ‘country’ of the Living. Nothing of the original remains this structure being founded by Anna Doukina, mother-in-law to Alexius Comnenus in the 11th century, subsidence necessitated extensive remodelling in the 13th century. The church as it stand now was completed two centuries later by Theodore Metochites between 1315-21, Grand Logothete to Andronicus II Paleologus. It was used to store the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria (Guide); its location meant in 1453 it was on the front line but the icon disappeared before the Ottomans could take it. Converted into a mosque (Kariye Camii) in the 16th century, it remains one of the greatest examples of Byzantine art surviving.
(There’s also a nice little caff in the square outside where you can take the weight of your feet for ten minutes with a nice glass of alma chai or a Turkish coffee and some baklava).
18/. Highest point along the Land Walls leading to the Sixth Hill at 77m above sea level. From here on the night of May 24, the watchers could see the dome of St. Sophia as it appeared to be suffused with a red glow that crept slowly up and round from its base to the great gilt cross at the top. The light lingered there for a moment and then went out. It was interpreted it as a sign that the holy light in the cathedral of the Holy Wisdom, and with it the guardian angel of the city, had gone for ever. The Virgin Hodegetria, who had protected the city for so long, had turned her head and departed. All was lost.
19/. End of the Theodosian Walls. From here on the walls have been modified or added to, dog-legging out.
20/. Porta Xylokerkou
Gate of the Wooden Circus. From a wooden hippodrome that stood just outside the walls.
21/. Gate of the Porphyrogenitus/ Tekfur Sarayı
An exit from the Palace to the land outside the walls.
22/.Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
Built in the 13th-14th century, possibly as an annexe to Blachernae, it suffered extensive damage in 1453 as it is wedged between the inner and outer fortifications of the Theodosian walls. All that is left now is the geometrically designed façade, now renamed Tefkur Saray. Extensively cleaned in the last ten years it is worth a look
23/. The Comnenian Walls. The first part of this section was built by Manuel Comnenus (1143-80).
24/. Gate of the Kaligaria/ Eğri Kapı
One of the civil gates. It was here that Constantine XI Dragases bade farewell to his household before ascending the tower view the besieging Ottoman army of Mehmet II. Last seen here by George Sphrantzes, he made his way to Haghia Sophia and the last highly charged emotional Mass. (‘Even a man of wood could not have stayed from weeping’).
25/. Later, possibly Paleologian Walls
This is a single wall without a moat, it is thicker and more massive than the Theodosian Wall and its towers are stronger, higher and closer together. The first part was started by Manuel Comnenus in the 12th century. The fortifications from the north terrace of the Blachernae to the Golden Horn consist of two parallel walls joined at their end to form a citadel. The inner wall was built by Heraclius in 627 against the Avars, the outer by Leo V in 813 to protect the city from Krum of the Bulgars (remember him? Nicephoros I?)
The Theodosian Walls proper end here, incorporating these fortifications that guarded the Blachernae quarter, whose inferiority compared to the previous stretches is compensated for by the sharply steeping terrain.
26/. Gate of the Gyrolimne (‘The Silver Lake’)
An entrance to the Blachernae Palace
27/. Tower of Isaac Angelos
Probably built by the Emperor of that name in 1188 during his first rein and designed as a private residence, the upper stories had a platform with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside.
28/. Tower and Prison of Anemas
This location appears frequently in the last centuries of Byzantium; a number of Emperors having been imprisoned, mutilated and murdered here , Isaac Angelus and his son Alexius III being strangled shortly before the sack of 1204. You used to be able to wriggle down a tunnel to an old cell, but unless you fancy spending the rest of the day walking around like a Turkish Stig of the Dump, it really is just another hole in the ground.
29/. Wall of Leo
Outer Section, built in 827. Designed to strengthen the Walls of Heraclius.
30/. Wall of Heraclius
Inner Section, built in 627.
31/. Blachernae
First palace built on this site by Anastasios in about 500, used by the imperial family when visiting the shrine of the Blacherniotissa. Expanded by the Comneni it supplanted the Bucoleon, which after the Restoration of 1261 it replaced entirely. Suffered extensively during the siege of 1453.
32/. Gate of the Blachernae
The outer section through the wall of Leo has collapsed.
33/. Church of St. Mary of Blachernae
Built over a pagan spring in 451 by Pulcheria, the wife of the emperor Marcian. It was the repository of the robe and mantle of the Virgin Mary, the protectress of the city, who appeared on the wall in 627 to disperse the Avars. The church was destroyed in a fire in 1434.
34/. Xyloporta – the end of the Land Walls to the North
Covering a distance of 6.5km, they were for the most part constructed in the early 5th century during the reign of Theodosius II and consisted of a single line of walls studded with towers. These collapsed during an earthquake in 447 and with the incentive of an approach by Attila the Circus factions rebuilt this section as well within two months adding an outer wall and a moat
35/. Porta Kilomene
Where the sea walls gave access to the Blachernae Palace and the effective end of this walk. Alas, there is no easy way back to Sultanahmet from here other than to walk along the Golden Horn. You can pop into St George’s on the way back and pause for a moment or two in quiet reflection; at this point I normally offer up a few prayers, usually for my poor feet at this stage. If you make it this far, I hope this gazette has been of some use.
In short, apart from the odd example of Ottoman-maintained triumphalism, assault, neglect and earthquake have handled the walls quite roughly, many of the towers are split and shattered or have half fallen to the ground. The outer walls have been almost completely destroyed, and the remains of only half of the towers can be seen. Mostly modern repairs (not always terribly well done) have recreated whole cross sections of the walls so that the visitor can see them and appreciate the full glory of what was once there and appreciate one of the glories of Byzantium that were its bulwark and shield until overcome by technology.
One final word; good fences make for good neighbours, but good walls are for bad neighbours. By the time this is published we will see if Trumps Wall will be joining the Berlin Wall and the West Bank Wall as an expression of modern separation and like the Great Wall and the Theodosian Wall will we be asking how well they too, worked?
Published in Issue 7 of the Byzantine Times
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