Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (48 page)

Leaving the church, we turn left and then at the second corner we turn left again. A short distance along on the left side of the street we come to one of the oldest and grandest Turkish baths in the city, now closed for restoration. It is now called Küçük (Little) Mustafa Pa
ş
a Hamam
ı
, but it seems actually to have been founded by Koca Mustafa Pa
ş
a, Grand Vezir to Beyazit II, who built it sometime before 1512. Its plan and the incredibly varied and intricate structure of its domes would entirely bear out that early date. Its camekân, about 14.5 metres square, is among the largest in the city, so that not even the wooden galleries around it detract much from its impressiveness; in its centre there is a pretty marble basin. The so
ğ
ukluk, as so often, is merely carved out of the hararet, consisting of its right-hand cubicle and the bottom arm of the cross. The hararet itself is very splendid. The central dome has a deep cornice of elaborately-carved stalactites. Each of the three remaining cross-arms is covered with a vault of utterly different structure, the prettiest being perhaps that on the right which has a semidome in the form of a deeply ribbed shell. The two corner cubicles at the back have domes supported on a cornice of juxtaposed triangles, while the third cubicle has a very beautiful
opus sectile
pavement in a variety of brilliant coloured marbles.

After leaving the hamam we turn right and walk west along Küçük Mustafa Pa
ş
a Soka
ğ
ı
for about 100 metres until we come to an intersection with streets winding off in several directions. If we take the street that veers off at about 45° to the right, we soon come to the fragmentary ruins of a small Byzantine church partly concealed by trees and houses. Only a portion of the apse survives, but this is interesting as showing an elaborate decoration in brickwork of meander and zigzag designs. Attempts to identify the building with several churches known to have been in the area lack any serious evidence; it is known locally as Sinan Pa
ş
a Mescidi. The church would appear to date from the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

HAVUZLU HAMAM

Once past the church we come quickly to Yeni Aya Kap
ı
, which leads out to the main road along the Golden Horn. This portal is not one of the original gateways in the Byzantine sea-walls, but was constructed in 1582 by Sinan. The local residents had petitioned the government to open a gate there so that they could more easily make their way to the new bath which Sinan had constructed outside the walls at that point. This bath, the Havuzlu Hamam, or Bath with a Pool, was built by Sinan in 1582 for the Valide Sultan Nurbanu, mother of Murat III. Unfortunately the hamam is now disaffected and in a state of advanced decay.

THE PETR
İ
ON

About 100 metres beyond Yeni Aya Kap
ı
, we come to a point where a second road, Sadrazam Ali Pa
ş
a Caddesi, branches off to the left at a slight angle to the main road along the Golden Horn. This was the site of the Gate of the Petrion, one of the portals in the Byzantine sea-walls. The Petrion itself was a walled enclave on the lower slope of the Fifth Hill; the portal here being its eastern sea-gate. The Petrion figured prominently in the assaults upon the sea-walls by the Crusaders and the Turks. On 13 July 1203, the Venetian galleys under Doge Dandolo pushed their prows up against the sea-walls of the Petrion and captured 25 defence towers. The French knight Villehardouin describes Dandolo in action at that time: “The Doge of Venice, though an old man [he was nearly ninety] and totally blind, stood at the bow of his galley with the banner of St. Mark unfurled before him. He cried out to his men to put him on shore or he would deal with them as they deserved. They obeyed him promptly, for the galley touched ground and the men in it leapt ashore, carrying the banner of St. Mark to land before the Doge.” In the final Crusader assault upon the city on 12 April 1204, the Petrion was once again the centre of the action. It was here that two brave knights jumped from the flying-bridge of the galleon Pelerine onto a defence tower, and from there led the charge that breached the walls and brought about the capture of the city. On 29 May 1453, the Petrion withstood a sustained attack by the Turkish fleet and the defenders surrendered only when they heard that the land-walls were breached and that the city had fallen. Since it had been surrendered rather than being taken by assault, Fatih decreed that the houses and churches in the Petrion be spared in the general sack of the city. Evliya Çelebi tells us that as a result of their prudent surrender the fishermen of the Petrion “are even now free from all kinds of duties and give no tithe to the Inspector of the Fisheries.”

THE GREEK ORTHODOX PATR
İ
ARCHATE

Leaving the main road and veering left along Sadrazam Ali Pa
ş
a Caddesi, we soon come to the entrance to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. On entering, we notice that the main gate is permanently welded shut and painted black. This is the famous Orta Kap
ı
, the Central Gate, which has become almost a symbol of Greek-Turkish intransigence. For it was here that Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople, was hanged for treason on 22 April 1821.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate has been on this site since about 1601, having moved around for a number of years after leaving the Pammakaristos in 1586. The present patriarchal church of St. George, however, dates only from 1720. Like almost all the post-Conquest churches in the city, it is a small basilica. This form was adopted partly because of its simplicity, but largely because the Christians were forbidden to build churches with domes or masonry roofs, so that the basilica with its timbered roof, a traditional Christian edifice, was the obvious solution. The earlier church seems to have had the same form, for an Italian traveller who saw it in 1615 describes it as “of moderate size, long in form and with several aisles.” Among the many relics in the church are the remains of St. Omonia, St. Theophano and St. Euphemia of Chalcedon, whose martyrium we have seen near the Hippodrome; their coffins are in the south aisle. On the right side of the central aisle is the Partriarchal Throne, which is thought to date from the late Byzantine period, although the pious claim that it is the original throne of St. John Chrysostomos, who was Patriarch at the beginning of the fifth century. The church also contains a very lovely portative mosaic of the Blessed Virgin, of the same type and date as the one at St. Nicholas.

Across the courtyard from the church are the other buildings of the Patriarchate. With the exception of the library, a pleasing old building, these are all modern structures erected after the disastrous fire of 1941 which gutted most of the buildings on this side of the courtyard. It is hard to believe that this modest establishment was the centre of the entire Orthodox Church, or that in its great days the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople dominated the religious affairs of the entire Eastern Christian world. Today, although the present Patriarch, Bartholomeos, is still the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity, his actual flock in Turkey consists of only the few thousand Greeks still resident in Istanbul and the Aegean islands of Imbros and Tenedos.

THE FENER

After leaving the Patriarchate we continue on along Sadrazam Ali Pa
ş
a Caddesi for a few paces to the next intersection. Just to the right at this point is the site of the former Fener Kap
ı
s
ı
, the ancient Porta Phanari, or the Gate of the Lighthouse. This gate, now vanished, long ago gave its name to the adjacent quarter, the Fener, so famous in the history of Istanbul in past centuries. Beginning in the sixteenth century, Greeks of this neighbourhood, the Feneriotes, amassed considerable wealth in trade and commerce under the protective mantle of the Ottoman Empire. Many Feneriotes achieved positions of great eminence in the Empire and several families between them even gained control of the trans-Danubian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, client states of the Ottomans. The Feneriotes ruled as Hospodars, or Princes, and much of the wealth which they thus acquired was funnelled back into the Fener, where they built magnificent mansions and palaces. The palaces of the Feneriotes have now vanished, but a few of their mansions still survive, reminding us of that colourful period in the city’s past.

Continuing along in the same direction for a few steps past Fener Kap
ı
s
ı
, we take the first left and then almost immediately turn right into the next street, Vodina Caddesi. About 100 metres along this street on the left side we see a high wall which encloses a large open area extending up the side of the hill. This area is the property of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and within it are two churches of some interest. (Those wishing to see these churches should make enquiries at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.) The first of these is the church of St. George Metochi, just inside the walls along Vodina Caddesi. It is entered through the gate we see half way down the block. Since the middle of the seventeenth century this has been the Metochion of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The church, which has been rebuilt several times since then, was originally given to the Patriarch of Jerusalem by Michael Cantacuzenus, one of the first Feneriote plutocrats, whose palace stood within the walled enclosure where we find the church today. Michael Cantacuzenus, whom the Turks called
Ş
eytano
ğ
lu, the Son of Satan, used his wealth to good advantage, acquiring a vast library which included a collection of most of the extant ancient manuscripts in the city. Among the manuscripts in St. George there was discovered in 1906 a lost work of Archimedes. This manuscript, a tenth-century copy in palimpsest, was a perfect and complete text of
Archimedes’ Method of Treating Mechanical Problems, Dedicated to
Eratosthenes.
This is perhaps the single most important work of the greatest mathematical physicist of antiquity, and constitutes a very great addition to our knowledge of ancient science.

Passing St. George’s and continuing along Vodina Caddesi to the next corner, we turn left and follow the walled enclosure along a steep cobbled street leading uphill. A little way up the hill we see another iron gate which leads to the second of the two churches in this enclave. This is the church of the Panaghia Paramithias (St. Mary the Consoler), which served as the Patriarchal church from 1586 till 1596, in the years just after the Patriarchate was moved from the Pammakaristos. Notice the double eagle carved on the marble flagstone at the entrance to the church; this is the symbol of the imperial Palaeologan dynasty and of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. This church is more commonly called Vlach Saray, or the Palace of the Wallachians, because it was attached to the adjacent palace of the Cantacuzenus family, who were Hospodars of Wallachia as well as of Moldavia. Unfortunately, Vlach Saray was destroyed by a fire in 1976, and only charred ruins remain to be seen today.

ST. MARY OF THE MONGOLS

Continuing up the hill we turn left at the corner and then take the second right. We then see ahead a rose-red Byzantine church, deformed in shape and with an unusually high drum. This is the church dedicated to the Theotokos Panaghiotissa, the All-Holy Mother of God, but it is more generally called the Mouchliotissa, or St. Mary of the Mongols. This church was founded, or rebuilt, in about 1282 by the Princess Maria Palaeologina, an illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. In the year 1265 Maria was sent by her father as a bride to Hulagu, the Great Khan of the Mongols. Hulagu died before Maria arrived at the Mongol court, however, so she was married instead to his son and successor Abagu. Maria lived at the Mongol court in Persia for about 15 years, and through her influence the Khan and many of his court became Christians. But then, in 1281, Abagu was assassinated by his brother Ahmet and Maria was forced to return to Constantinople. After Maria’s return her father offered her as a bride to still another Khan of the Mongols, Charabanda, but this time she refused; perhaps she had had enough of Khans. At about this time Maria founded the church which we see today, together with a convent, and dedicated it to the Mouchliotissa, Our Lady of the Mongols. Maria, the Despoina of the Mongols, as she was known, then became a nun and spent her last years in retirement in her convent: This romantic tale appears to be only partially true, for the church seems actually to have been founded by Isaac Dukas, uncle of Michael VIII, about 1261.The Despoina of the Mongols perhaps merely added to it and gave it further adornments. After the Conquest, Sultan Mehmet II, at the request of his Greek architect Christodoulos (who may be Atik Sinan, the architect of the original Fatih Camii), issued a decree confirming the right of the local Greeks to keep this church. The Greeks remain in possession of the church to this day, and what is claimed to be Fatih’s
ferman
, or decree, is still displayed there. This is the only Byzantine church which has been continuously in the hands of the Greeks since before the Turkish Conquest.