CHAPTER IV The Walls

The history of Constantinople—it is proclaimed at every epoch in her life—has ever its two abiding interests, the Church and the military spirit. The one is represented for all time in S. Sophia. The other finds its memorial in the walls.

For centuries, whose heroic story we have so baldly told, the city of the Cæsars preserved for Europe the justice of Rome, the learning of Greece. She taught to the barbarians the meaning of civilitas, she led many of the nations into the truest brotherhood of the Catholic Church. And all through she was fighting a war which never ceased, often driven back upon her own defences, but again and again issuing forth a conqueror. By her age-long resistance Constantinople saved Europe from a new barbarian deluge, from a second Dark Age. And Constantinople herself was saved by her walls. There is no historic monument in Europe which has a memory more glorious or more heroic.

To the student of history there is nothing of all he sees in the "Queen of Cities" that is so full of perpetual and varied interest. The whole story of Constantinople might be told in commentary on the great walls that once protected her from the foe. Here it shall only be pointed how two or three days may be spent—or two or three hours if it must be so—in learning something of these magnificent ruins which have so great a history written on their face. The writer has spent many happy hours in tracing them at every point. Within a few days of his last visit the knowledge, such as it was, which he had gained, was a hundredfold increased by the superb work of devotion and research in which Professor van Millingen has summed up the studies of many years, which will be, once for all, the classical authority on the walls and adjoining sites of Byzantine Constantinople. It has often already been referred to in these pages. Here let it be said that every word that is written on the walls is revised in the light of what Professor van Millingen has published, and that no one who wishes seriously to study the history of the fortifications, or indeed of the city itself, can now do so with any success without the help of this almost faultless book.

The simplest method for the traveller is probably first to take the less interesting and more ruinous walls on the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmora—which indeed will probably only be visited in detail by those who have a special historical interest, and then to turn to the Land walls, which no one ever visits the city without seeing at least in superficial view.

KADIKEUI (CHALCEDON), FROM SERAGLIO POINT

Constantinople, though it has ceased to be the capital city of a maritime power, has never lost the advantages of its unique maritime position. The sea, with its currents and its storms, has always been its first natural protector. Only once has the city been captured from the sea. But this has not meant that defence was necessary only for the landward approach. Byzantium had its sea-walls: they were enlarged by Constantine, and in 439 Theodosius II. completed them by carrying them on to meet the land-walls, which ended then at Blachernae northwards and by the Golden Gate on the south. During the middle ages they constantly needed repair, notably after the arctic winter of 763-4, when huge ice-floes thronged the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, and even broke over the wall at the point of the Acropolis (Seraglio point). In the ninth century again Theophilus made a thorough restoration, which is recorded in many inscriptions still to be seen on the wall by the Dierman Kapoussi at the foot of the Seraglio gardens. Among later restorations are those of Leo the Wise and his brother Alexander: a tower, near Koum Kapoussi, bears the inscription:

+ ΠΥΡΓΟΣ ΛΕΟΝΤΟΣ Κ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ +

and it is here, it has been suggested, that the Cretans held out in 1453 till Mohammed gave them special terms and allowed them to depart with all the honours of war. Michael Palæologus, after the recovery of the city from the Latins, began an inner sea-wall, but no traces of it, Professor van Millingen says, have survived. In 1351 again all the seaward walls were repaired, and all the houses that had been built between them and the sea were destroyed. It appears that the strip of ground originally outside the walls was smaller than at present, considerable silting having taken place during the last five centuries. The Venetian fleet in 1203 drew near enough to the walls to throw a flying bridge from the ships to the ramparts.

The last gate of the land walls is the Xylo-porta. The first on the Golden Horn is Aivan-Serai. Near it is a landing-stage, at which the Emperors used formally to be received by the Senate when they came by water to Blachernae. Close to this gate are the churches of S. Thekla and SS. Peter and Mark, and the church (on an ancient site) of S. Demetrius. From an archway near the next gate comes the splendid Nike now in the museum. The walls here are now some way from the Golden Horn, generally at the opposite side of the narrow street, and can be seen only in fragments, sometimes set into a house, or in a garden. Balat Kapoussi, gate of the Kynegos (Hunter), protected a harbour: the name is thought to be connected with the imperial hunting. The other gates going eastwards that are of interest are the Porta Phani, the gate of Phanar, where was once a lighthouse, now the nearest entrance to the patriarchal church and to the little church of the Mouchliotissa; Petri Kapoussi, the gate of the Petrion, near the famous convent where so many imperial ladies ended their days, and where the Venetians cast their bridges on to the walls in 1203, recovering the city for Isaac Angelus, and in 1204, capturing it for the Latins. The desperate Turkish attack on this point in 1453 was repulsed; Aya Kapoussi, the gate of S. Theodosia, comes next. After the inner bridge are the old Venetian quarter and the great timber yards. By the outer bridge is the Baluk Bazâr Kapoussi, the gate of the fish market, where now as in the fifteenth century the fish market is held. It was the Gate of the Perama (the old ferry was across here, where is now the bridge) and it was also called Porta Hebraica, for the Jews early settled there, and held their property till they were dispossessed to build the Yeni Valideh Djamissi. Beyond it were the settlements of the merchants of Pisa and Amalfi. Beyond it again is the Bagtché Kapoussi, the Πόρτα τοῦ Νεωρίου, the harbour in which the imperial fleet was moored when it came in for repairs. From here eastwards was the home of the first Genoese colony, and by it is the pier at which a new Grand Vizier lands in state when he first comes to take possession of the office of his department. Further still (after the Porta Veteris Rectoris) is the Yali Kiosk Kapoussi, at the point where the walls which now separate the Seraglio from the rest of the city join the ancient fortifications. It was the Porta Eugenii, and from it the chain was stretched across to Galata. Here the brides of the Emperors landed when they came by sea, and were "invested with the imperial buskins and other insignia of their rank."

From this point there is difficulty for the student to trace the course of the walls. Part can be identified at the beginning of the Seraglio enclosure; but part cannot be seen at all except from the sea. Approach is forbidden by the harsh "Yasak, Yasak" of the sentries. The walls from the Acropolis, now Seraglio point, to the marble tower at the end of the Land walls, had 188 towers, and were above five miles in length. Unlike those on the Golden Horn they were built close to the sea, and the line of their course "was extremely irregular, turning in and out with every bend of the shore, to present always as short and sharp a front as possible to the waves that dashed against them." At least thirteen gates are known. The first is the Cannon gate, Top Kapoussi, "a short distance to the south of the apex of the promontory," called by the Greeks the gate of S. Barbara, from the church which stood near it. Close to it was the Mangana, or arsenal of the city. The next gate is Deirmen Kapoussi (gate of the mill), of which the Greek name is unknown. It was near here that the great ice-floes broke over the wall; and a number of inscriptions westwards from this point mark the restorations of Theophilus. Near it "a hollow now occupied by market gardens indicates the site of the Kynegion, the amphitheatre erected by Severus when he restored Byzantium," where in later times Justinian II. set his feet on Leontius and Apsimarus (see above, p. 55).

The next gate is the Demir Kapoussi, with a small opening through which it is said that the Sultanas sewn in sacks were thrown, and near it large chambers possibly used as prisons. A little further on there are arched buttresses through which water used to be brought from the holy spring of the ancient Church of S. Saviour, and on which was built the famous Indjili Kiosk, from which the Sultans would view the splendid panorama of hill and sea which stretches before it. Here, too, was the palace of Mangana, and not far off the atrium of Justinian mentioned by Procopius, where stood the splendid statue of Theodora. Further south was the Church of the Theotokos Hodegetria, where originally the icon of the B. V. M. attributed to S. Luke (see p. 263) was kept. The place of the small gate named after the church is shown by two slabs, built into the inner side of the gateway now walled up, bearing the inscription "Open me the gates of righteousness that I may go in and praise the Lord." It was through this gate that John VI. Palæologus entered in 1355, having tricked the guards by pretending that his ships were wrecked. Beyond Ahour Kapoussi is the ruined wall of the palace of Hormisdas, where once was the Bucoleon, and then comes the small bay which formed the imperial port of the Bucoleon. A little further one sees clearly the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus above the ruined wall, and here was the gate on which was an inscription which commemorated the famous Nika insurrection. Beyond this were two harbours, the Harbour of Julian or S. Sophia, and that of the Kontoscolion, where the gate is now called Koum Kapoussi. Within this is the Armenian quarter with its patriarchate. Next comes Yeni Kapoussi, the new gate, where began the ancient harbour now silted up, called the harbour of Eleutherius (Vlanga Bostan).

The next gate was called that of S. Æmilianus, now Daoud Pasha Kapoussi, which ended the walls of Constantine along the shore. The next is the πόρτα τοῦ Ψαμαθᾶ, Psamathia Kapoussi, named, as is the quarter, after the sand thrown up on the beach. The next, Narli Kapoussi, the Pomegranate gate, is that which gave admission to the monastery of the Studium. Here on the Decollation of S. John Baptist, August 29, the Emperor was received by the abbat and conducted in state to the church to attend the Eucharist of the day. On the tower close by is an inscription recording its reparation by Manuel Comnenus. Beyond was the church and monastery of Diomed, on whose steps Basil the Macedonian slept when he first came to Constantinople a homeless wanderer. The wall ends with the famous Mermer Kuleh. Perhaps this was at one time the prison of S. Diomed, where Pope Martin I. was placed in 654, and Maria Comnena, mother of Alexius II., was imprisoned by Andronicus Comnenus. Traces of a two-storeyed building still exist behind this magnificent tower which so splendidly ends the sea-walls.

The Marble Tower at S. W. Corner of the Walls

THE MARBLE TOWER AT S.W. CORNER OF THE WALLS

so we turn northwards and enter upon the famous defences, so long the bulwarks of the Empire.

Something has already been said about the building of the Theodosian walls. It has been seen that Anthemius who ruled as Prætorian prefect during the minority of the Emperor Theodosius II. enlarged and refortified the city, and that "the bounds he assigned to the city, fixed substantially her permanent dimensions, and behind the bulwarks he raised—improved and often repaired, indeed, by his successors—Constantinople acted her great part in the history of the world." Repaired by Constantine, then holding the office that had been held by Anthemius, thirty-four years after the first construction, "this was a wall, indeed, τὸ καὶ τεῖχος ὄντως[62]—a wall which, so long as ordinary courage survived, and the modes of ancient warfare were not superseded, made Constantinople impregnable, and behind which civilization defied the assaults of barbarism for a thousand years."

The walls stretch now from the marble tower to a short distance beyond the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus. Originally they went further, but, as will be seen, they were superseded by newer fortifications beyond that point.

The walls, as may be traced to-day, were thus divided. First, within was the great inner wall from 13½ to 15½ feet thick, which historians call τὸ κάστρον τὸ μέγα, τὸ μέγα τεῖχος. It rose probably about 50 feet above the ground, with a battlement of 4 feet 8 inches. It was guarded by ninety-six towers, standing about 180 feet apart, about 60 feet high, and projecting from the wall from 18 to 34 feet. These towers were distinct buildings from the wall, though connected with it. The capture of a tower would not necessarily involve the capture of the wall. From the roof of the tower the engineer discharged stones and Greek fire, and there, says Nicephorus Gregoras, the sentinels looked westward day and night, keeping themselves awake at night by shouting to one another along the line.

Between the inner and outer walls was the inner terrace, ὁ περίβολος, in which were sheltered the troops for the defence of the outer walls. It was a space of from 50 to 64 feet. Above it rising now 10 feet, but probably of old nearly twice as far, was the outer wall, the "little wall." It is "from 2 to 6½ feet thick, rising some 10 feet above the present level of the peribolos, and about 27½ feet above the present level of the terrace between the outer wall and the moat."[63] The upper part is built above a lower solid portion, "for the most part in arches, faced on the outer side with hewn blocks of stone," and supported behind by arches which carried a parapet-wall. This wall was also protected by towers with small windows. Behind this outer wall the troops on which fell the brunt of the fighting, as in 1422 and 1453, were sheltered.

Beyond the outer wall was an embankment or terrace, τὸ ἔξω παρατείχιον, some 60 feet broad. Then came the moat, of at least the same breadth as the terrace. This is now to a great extent filled up and used for market gardens, but in front of the Golden Gate it is still 22 feet deep. It had scarp and counter-scarp, each 5 feet thick, and the scarp was surmounted by a breast-work with battlements 5 feet high. Across the moat are walls, which were probably aqueducts. It seems probable that the moat itself was rarely if ever filled with water.

To the gates which went through both walls belongs the greatest historic interest. Some of the ten great gates were merely used to give entrance to the fortifications; others, connected with bridges thrown over the moat, formed the public gates of the city. These latter were specially guarded by towers. Besides these there were a few posterns, most of which led only into the inner terrace. Starting from the marble tower we come across a series of inscriptions, one of Basil and Constantine (975-1025), over the first inner tower, and after that a number commemorating the restoration by John Palæologus, 1433-44. The first gate is the most renowned of all, the Porta Aurea, the Golden Gate, built of marble with two beautifully carved capitals. It is flanked by two great marble towers. It was built between 389 and 391 to commemorate the victory of Theodosius the Great over Maximus. Through it he entered in triumph in 391, and like the column of Arcadius and the obelisk in the Hippodrome, it is the still surviving memorial of his greatness. Above it at one time stood a statue of Theodosius, and many groups of statuary. An inscription recorded its foundation:

HAEC LOCA THEVDOSIVS DECORAT POST FATA TYRANNI.

AVREA SAECLA GERIT QVI PORTAM CONSTRVIT AVRO.

Probably, as Professor Bury has suggested, the second line was inscribed under Theodosius II. when the archway became part of the new wall. "At the south-western angle of the northern tower the Roman eagle still spreads its wings; the laureated monogram 'XP' appears above the central archway on the city side of the gateway, and several crosses are scattered over the building." Traces of frescoes may still be seen on the inner walls of the southern arch, which Professor Van Millingen thinks may have been used as a chapel. It had three archways, the centre of which was the imperial entrance. Through this gate passed new sovereigns from the Hebdomon (which Professor Van Millingen has conclusively proved to have been situated at the village, now Makrikeui, some three miles westwards of the city) when they came to be crowned or to take formal possession. Such were Marcian in 450, Leo I. in 457, Basiliscus in 476, Phocas in 602, Leo the Armenian in 813, and Nicephorus Phocas in 963. Here too envoys from the Pope were sometimes met.

WALLS NEAR THE GOLDEN GATE: ROMAN ROAD IN FOREGROUND

Through it came the imperial triumphs of Heraclius, Constantine Copronymus, Theophilus, Basil I., Tzimisces, Basil II. The last to enter in triumph was Michael Palæologus when the Empire was restored to the Greeks in 1261, and the Emperor walked humbly on foot through the gate till he reached the church of the Studium.

It was long one of the strongest defences of the city, an almost impregnable acropolis, as Cantacuzene calls it. When the city was captured by the Turks, Mohammed II. increased the defences by building here, in 1457, behind the gate, the great enclosure now called the Seven Towers, which became the state prison. In it foreign ambassadors were placed when their countries were at war with Turkey, and there as late as the war with Revolutionary France a French ambassador was confined. Mohammed II. built up all the entrances of the Golden Gate; and the legend still survives that through it a victorious Christian army shall enter when the city is captured from the Turks.

The gate nearest to it, now called Yedi Koulé Kapoussi, may probably have existed in Byzantine times, as a public gate called by the same name as the greater gate. Through it doubtless Basil the Macedonian came when he turned aside and lay down to sleep on the steps of the monastery of S. Diomed.

Next to this as we walk northwards comes the second military gate, and, after walls which have several inscriptions, the second public gate, the Selivri Kapoussi (gate leading to the Selivria road). This was originally the πύλη τῆς πηγῆς, gate of the Holy Spring, which is at the village now called Balukli. After we have looked on it, with its old towers and dark narrow entrance through which Alexius the general of Michael Palæologus entered in 1261, it is delightful to turn aside and follow the shady road half a mile to the little Christian village, best of all if it is en fête in the week of the Greek Easter, when you can buy icons and sacred medals, and join the crowds who throng the church and descend the steps by the baptistery to the sacred well. The legend of its sacredness goes far back. As early as Justinian's time there was a church there, as Procopius says, "in the place which is called the Fountain, where there is a thick grove of cypress trees, a meadow whose rich earth blooms with flowers, a garden abounding with fruit, a fountain which noiselessly pours forth a quiet and sweet stream of water—in short, where all the surroundings befit a sacred place." There was also for many centuries a palace and park of the Emperors. The last tale of the sacred well belongs to the time of the Turkish conquest. On the fatal 29th of May the village priest was sitting in his garden beside the well frying his fish, when a messenger rushed up with the news that the Turks had broken through the wall and were entering the city. The holy man refused to believe it. "But run to the top of your garden," said his friend, "and see for yourself." "No. I would as soon believe that these fish should leap out of the frying-pan into the spring." And they did; and there are their descendants, as any one may see for himself, to this day.

Back, after a pleasant rest at Balukli, to the third military gate, only a short space from that of the πήγη; then to the Porta Rhegion, the gate of Rhegium Yeni Mevlevi Haneh Kapoussi, which led to Rhegium on the Marmora twelve miles away. On it are no less than five inscriptions on the gateway itself, and two on the southern tower. Of the latter, one reads—

+  ΝΙΚΑ Η ΤΥΧΗ

ΚωΝϹΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟ

ΦΥΛΑΚΤΟΥ ΗΜωΝ ΔΕϹΠΟΤΟΥ

+                                           +

"The fortune of Constantine our God-protected Emperor conquers."

The last line has been effaced.

After the fourth military gate comes the gate of S. Romanus, now Top Kapoussi, near which the last Emperor fell, and through which Mohammed entered in triumph. Opposite this point the Sultan's tent was placed, as Phrantzes tells us.

The next military gate is that of the Pempton. To this the road descends into the valley of the Lycus, and we pass the great breach made by the Turkish cannon in 1453, through which the troops forced their entrance. In the Lycus valley it was that Theodosius II. fell from his horse in 450, an accident from the effects of which he died. The next public gate is that called Edirnè Kapoussi, the Adrianople gate, which was of old the gate of Charisius. Within, the road led to the Imperial cemetery by the Church of the Holy Apostles, where Theodora, the wife of the great Justinian, was buried. Here was the part of the walls which was called Μεσοτείχον: and here was generally the chief point of attack against the city. "Here stood the gates opening upon the streets which commanded the hills of the city; here was the weakest part of the fortifications, the channel of the Lycus rendering a deep moat impossible, while the dip in the line of the walls as they descended and ascended the slopes of the valley put the defenders below the level occupied by the besiegers."

This was shown in the very first siege, 626, as well as in the last; and it was here that the first cannonade was directed against the walls, in 1422. In the last siege two towers of the inner wall and a large part of the outer wall were battered to pieces, and the moat was filled ready for an assault. Giustiniani erected a palisade covered with hides and supported with earthworks; and it was not till the gallant Genoese fell mortally wounded that the Turks succeeded in forcing their way in.

It is through the Edirnè Kapoussi that one naturally enters to see both the Church of the Chora and the Tekfour Serai, the palace of the Porphyrogenitus. The large mosque within the gate is that built by Suleiman in memory of one of his daughters.

Continuing northwards, with the striking view of the ruined palace rising above the walls, we reach the sixth military gate, and beyond this the lines of the walls, which have turned eastwards, are much broken. The sixth military gate is the Kerko-Porta (see above p. 150).

Beyond this the wall of Theodosius comes to an end abruptly. From this point the fortifications have a different character. "Along the greater portion of their course these bulwarks consisted of a single wall, without a moat; but at a short distance from the water, where they stand on level ground, they formed a double wall, which was at one time protected by a moat and constituted a citadel at the north-west angle of the city." They belong, Professor van Millingen has also clearly proved, to at least three periods, to the days of Heraclius, of Leo, and of Manuel Comnenus. After the Kerko-Porta the Theodosian walls turned eastwards; when the palace of Blachernae was defended it was probably by the erection, after the fifth century, of a new wall. The wall of Manuel Comnenus, built to give additional protection, left the earlier wall on an inner line of defence.

The wall of Manuel is stronger than that of Theodosius, but it has no moat; it resisted all the efforts of the Turkish artillery in 1453. The public gate in it was that of the Kaligaria (the district where military shoes were made), and from a tower beside it the last Emperor and Phrantzes reconnoitred early in the morning of the last day of the siege. North of this, from the tower which stands at the point where the wall turns eastwards, the fortifications seem to have been entirely rebuilt during the repairs of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. In this piece stands the gate of Gyrolimnè, through which probably the leaders of the Crusaders in 1203, who were encamped on the hill just outside, entered to negotiate with Isaac Angelus. Behind it stood the palace of Blachernae, the site of which may be expected to reveal much when it is excavated.

Beyond this, from the great tower, unbattlemented, which has on it an inscription in honour of Isaac Angelus, who reconstructed it in 1188, the greatest difficulties surround the identification of the different portions. The first part of the wall is of great height—sometimes sixty-eight feet—and of thickness varying from over thirty to over sixty feet. Three towers protect this part: two "twin towers" rising to a great height above the walls. The special character of the walls is determined by the fact that, within, the palace of Blachernae stood upon a terraced hill. The second tower, much higher than that with the inscription, may be identified with the tower of Isaac Angelus, described by Nicetas Choniates as built by the Emperor both for the defence of Blachernae, and for a residence for himself. Beyond it is a third tower, which has been generally considered to be the tower of Anemas, mentioned first by Anna Comnena, as the place in which Anemas, who had conspired against her father, was confined.

All these identifications are difficult; and it is also difficult to feel sure that a more satisfactory solution of the many problems which arise would not be to consider that the tower of Isaac Angelus is the comparatively small one that still bears his inscription, and that the two others, and northern tower, combine to form the "prison of Anemas."

Within these towers was certainly the Palace of Blachernae, and the chambers now so grim and foul, that may sometimes be inspected, are very likely the prisons built by Alexius Comnenus and connected with his palace.

Beyond these towers a new series of walls begins. These are "in two parallel lines, connected by transverse walls, so as to form a citadel beside the Golden Horn. The inner wall belongs to the reign of Heraclius; the outer is an erection of Leo V. the Armenian." A splendid view of these magnificent walls, and of the Golden Horn below, is obtained from the hill westwards, on which the Crusaders encamped in 1203. The wall of Heraclius, with its three hexagonal towers, was built to protect the suburb of Blachernae after the attack of the Avars in 627: that of Leo was built in 813 when the city was in danger from the Bulgarians. A citadel was formed between the two walls, within which was the chapel and sacred well of S. Nicholas. The gate is the gate of Blachernae, and beyond it is a tower with an inscription stating that it was reconstructed by "Romanus, the Christ-loving sovereign." From this point a wall led to the water's-edge, and in it was the Wooden Gate (Ξυλόπορτα, see above, p. 273).

We have thus completed the circuit of the most interesting mediæval defences in Europe. At every point they have memories that go back to great historic days, memories of treachery as well as heroism, but above all of a long and gallant defence of all that made the civilization of Europe enduring and worthy to endure.

To-day as one goes along the great triumphal way, still retaining fragments at least of its solid pavement that was laid by Justinian, the way along which countless armies of emperors and of invaders have passed on their march of triumph or retreat, we are reminded of the past not only by shattered walls, and by the goats that feed and scramble where once the soldiers of the empire kept watch, but by the immemorial cemetery, with its groups of cypress, which stands beside us as we walk.

It is a perpetual memorial of the vanity of human power. There, where thousands of Turks are now laid to rest, where the stones gape above the coffins placed a few feet below, and the strange lozenge-shapes with their gaudy inscriptions lean and totter on every side; there once crusading armies camped to sack a Christian city; and there the soldiers of Mohammed mustered for the last fight which was to give them the crown of their centuries of war. Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Goths, men of Italy and Russia and Greece, all have passed; and the men who have conquered where they fought and failed lie buried where once they camped. On one side of the great imperial way stretches this vast gloomy silent graveyard; on the other stand is the shattered wall.

In that long, broken, deserted wall the history of the great city seems summed up. "Débris colossal du passé, elle nous diminue et nous écrase, nous et nos existences courtes, et nos souffrances d'une heure, et tout le rien instable que nous sommes."