Gates.
At a short distance to the east of the Xylo Porta a breach in the wall marks the site of a gateway named by the Turks Kutchuk Aivan Serai Kapoussi—“the Small Gate of Aivan Serai.” [659] It stands at the head of a short street leading southwards to the site of the famous Church of the Theotokos of Blachernaæ, while to the north is the landing of Aivan Serai Iskelessi, which accommodates this quarter of the city. Here, probably, was the Porta Kiliomenè (Κοιλιωμένη Πόρτα), [660] at which the emperors—as late, at least, as the beginning of the thirteenth century—landed and were received by the Senate, when proceeding by water to visit the Church or the Palace of Blachernæ. Nowhere else could one disembark so near that sanctuary and that palace.
The landing-stage before the gate must, therefore, have been the Imperial Pier (Ἀποβάθρα τοῦ βασιλέως) mentioned by Nicetas Choniates. Some authorities, it is true, place that landing at Balat Kapoussi. But it could not have been there when Nicetas Choniates wrote; for that historian [661] refers to the Apobathra of the Emperor to indicate the position of the Wall of Leo, which was attacked by the Latins in 1203. Now, points which could thus serve to identify each other must have been in close proximity. But Balat Kapoussi and the Wall of Leo are too far apart for the former to indicate the site of the latter. On the other hand, the Wall of Leo and Aivan Serai Iskelessi are very near each other.
Over the northern entrance to the lower chamber in the tower west of the gateway were found, until recently, two blocks of stone, upon which the name of St. Pantoleon was rudely carved between the figures of two peacocks, or phœnixes, symbols of the immortality that rose from the fires of martyrdom. Possibly, the chamber was a chapel in which persons entering or leaving the city could perform their devotions. According to Stephen of Novgorod, the relics of St. Pantoleon reposed in the adjoining Church of the Theotokos of Blachernæ. [662]
In the street to the rear of the tower is the small Mosque Toklou Dedè Mesdjidi, formerly, it is supposed, the Church of St. Thekla, [663] in the quarter of Blachernæ.
On the east side of the street leading from the Porta Kiliomenè to the Church of Blachernæ remains are found of a large two-storied Byzantine edifice, with three aisles. Its original destination cannot be determined with any degree of certainty. By some authorities [664] the building is supposed to have been the Porticus Cariana (Καριανὸν Ἔμβολον), which the Emperor Maurice erected, and upon the walls of which scenes in his life, from his childhood until his accession to the throne, were pourtrayed. [665]
The Bay of Aivan Serai was called the Bay of Blachernæ (ὁ πρὸς Βλαχέρνας κόλπος), and had a dockyard known as the Neorion at Blachernæ (τὸ ἐν Βλαχέρναις νεώριον). [666]
Proceeding eastwards, a few paces bring us to a breach in the wall leading to the Mosque Atik Mustapha Pasha Djamissi, supposed to be the Byzantine Church of SS. Peter and Mark, which was erected in 458 by two patricians, Galbius and Candidus, upon the shore of the Golden Horn, in the quarter of Blachernæ. The sanctuary claimed the honour of having enshrined “the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin,” before that relic was placed in the church specially dedicated to the Theotokos in this part of the city. [667] In the street to the west of the mosque lies the marble baptismal font of the church, cruciform, and having three steps within it leading to the bottom.
In a chrysoboullon of John Palæologus dated 1342, mention is made of the Gate of St. Anastasia (Πύλη τῆς ἁγίας Ἀναστασίας) in this part of the city. [668] The Russian pilgrim, who visited Constantinople in the fifteenth century (1424-1453), speaks of a chapel containing the relics of St. Anastasia near the Church of Blachernæ. [669]
Considerable interest is attached to the Church of St. Demetrius, situated within the walls a few paces to the east of Atik Mustapha Pasha Djamissi; for although the present edifice dates only from the beginning of the eighteenth century, the original building was a Byzantine foundation, adorned with mosaics and surmounted by a dome. Its full style was the Church of St. Demetrius of Kanabus (τοῦ Καναβοῦ), and may, as the Patriarch Constantius suggests, [670] have been erected by a member of the family of the Nicholas Kanabus who became emperor for a few days, in the interval between the overthrow of the Angeli and the usurpation of Murtzuphlus, during the troublous times of the Fourth Crusade. [671] In 1334, the church was the property of George Pepagomenos, a relative of Andronicus III. [672] After the Turkish Conquest the church became, from 1597 to 1601, the cathedral of the Greek Patriarch, when he was deprived of the use of the Church of the Pammakaristos (Fethiyeh Djamissi). [673]
Soon after leaving the Church of St. Demetrius, and before reaching the gate now styled Balat Kapoussi, the city wall was pierced by three large archways, 45 to 55 paces apart, and alternating with three towers. Balat Kapoussi being only 55 paces beyond the easternmost archway, here stood four entrances into the city, in most unusual proximity to one another. The first, or westernmost archway was, at one time, adorned with a bas-relief on either side. Tafferner, chaplain to Count Walter of Leslie, ambassador from the German Emperor Leopold I. to the Ottoman Court in the seventeenth century, describes the archway as follows: “In decensu clivi defluentis in Euxini brachium, porta perampla et obstructa muro conspicitur. Fama fert limitum hunc fuisse aulæ magni Constantini. Ad dextrum portæ latus adstat Angelus a candido et eleganti marmore effigiatus, statura celsior, ac virilem præ se ferens, et inserto muro. Ad lævam, Deipara visitur, proportione priore consimilis, atque ab Angelo consulatuta.” [674]
Nikè (Formerly Adorning Archway Near Balat Kapoussi).
Nikè (Formerly Adorning Archway Near Balat Kapoussi).
Only the bas-relief which stood on the eastern side of the archway has survived to our time. [675] It represents a winged female figure, attired in a flowing robe, and holding in her left hand a palm leaf—beyond all controversy a Nikè, not, as Tafferner imagined, the Angel of the Annunciation, nor, as the Patriarch Constantius supposed, the Archangel Michael. [676]
Regarding the precise object of these four entrances, and the names to be attached to them, a serious difference of opinion prevails. Most authorities maintain that the archway adorned with the bas-relief was the Gate of the Kynegos, of the Hunter (τοῦ Κυνηγοῦ, τῶν Κυνηγῶν), so frequently mentioned in the later days of the Empire; and that Balat Kapoussi was the Pylè Basilikè (Πύλη Βασιλικὴ) referred to by writers of the same period. On the other hand, Gyllius identified Balat Kapoussi with the Gate of the Kynegos, and regarded the three archways above mentioned as entrances to a small artificial port within the line of the fortifications. His reason for the latter opinion was the existence of a great depression in the ground to the rear of the archways, which was occupied, in his day, by market-gardens, but which seemed to him the basin of an old harbour: “Ultra Portam Palatinam”—to give his own words—“progressus circiter centum viginti passus, animadverti tres magnus arcus, astructos urbis muro, et substructos, per quos olim Imperatores subducebant triremes in portum opere factum, nunc exiccatus et conversus in hortos concavos, præ se gerentes speciem portus obruti.” [677]
As appears from the passage just quoted, Gyllius styled Balat Kapoussi not only the Gate of the Hunter, but also the Porta Palatina. Whether in doing so he meant to identify the Gate of the Kynegos with the Basilikè Pylè, or simply gave the Latin rendering of the name by which Balat Kapoussi was popularly known when he visited the city, is not perfectly clear. The latter supposition is, however, more in harmony with that author’s usage in the case of other gates.
Stephen Gerlach and Leunclavius agree with Gyllius in regarding Balat Kapoussi as the Gate of the Kynegos, but place the Basilikè Pylè near the eastern extremity of the Harbour Walls, Gerlach [678] identifying it with Yali Kiosk Kapoussi, Leunclavius [679] with Bagtchè Kapoussi. Neither Gerlach nor Leunclavius refers to the three arches on the west of Balat Kapoussi. The latter, however, speaks of the hollow ground to their rear, describing it in the following terms: “Locus depressus et concavus, ubi Patriarchion erat meæ peregrinationis tempore,” and supposed it to have been the arena of a theatre for the exhibition of wild animals. From that theatre, he thought, the Gate of the Kynegos obtained its name.
The question to which gates the names Gate of the Kynegos and Basilikè Pylè respectively belonged is the most difficult problem connected with the history of the harbour fortifications. To discuss it satisfactorily at this stage of our inquiries is, however, impossible; for the opinion that the Basilikè Pylè was not at Balat Kapoussi, but near the eastern extremity of the Harbour Walls, is a point which can be determined only after all the facts relative to the gates near that end of the fortifications are before us. The full discussion of the subject must therefore be deferred, [680] and, meantime, little more can be done than to state the conclusions which appear to have most evidence in their favour.
There can be no doubt, in the first place, that the Gate of the Kynegos was in this vicinity, and was either Balat Kapoussi or the archway adorned with the bas-relief. This is established by all the indications in regard to the situation of the entrance. The Gate of the Kynegos stood, according to Phrantzes, [681] between the Xylo Porta and the Petrion; according to Pusculus, [682] between the Xylo Porta and the Porta Phani (Fener Kapoussi), and not far from the former. It was in the neighbourhood of the emperor’s palace, [683] and the point at which persons approaching that palace from the Golden Horn disembarked and took horses to reach the Imperial residence. [684] Both Balat Kapoussi and the adjoining archways answer to this description, and they are the only entrances which can pretend to be city gates in the portion of the walls between the Xylo Porta and the Gate of the Phanar. Therefore, one or other of them was the Gate of the Kynegos.
It is a corroboration of this conclusion to find that the district named after the Gate of the Kynegos occupied the level tract beside the Golden Horn within and without the line of the walls in the vicinity of these entrances. The Church of St. Demetrius, for instance, which stood a short distance to the west of Balat Kapoussi and the adjoining archways, is described as near a gate in the quarter of the Kynegon. [685] The bridge which the Turks threw out into the harbour from Haskeui, to carry a battery with which to bombard this part of the fortifications, was in front of the Kynegon. [686] Nicholas Barbaro [687] applies the name even to the territory near the Xylo Porta; for, according to him, the land walls extended from the Golden Gate to the Kynegon: “Le mure de tera, che jera mia sie, che sun de la Cresca per fina al Chinigo.” With this agrees also the statement of the same author that the Kynegon was the point where Diedo and Gabriel of Treviso landed the crews of their galleys, to excavate the moat which the emperor asked to be constructed before the land walls protecting his palace. [688] The quarter of the Kynegon thus comprised the modern quarters of Balata and Aivan Serai.
In the second place, it is exceedingly doubtful whether the archway with the Nikè, to which the name Gate of the Kynegos is commonly ascribed, was, after all, a city gate in the ordinary sense of the term. It does not stand alone, but is one of three archways which pierce, respectively, the curtain-walls between three towers. And these three openings were in close proximity to a gate (Balat Kapoussi), amply sufficient for the requirements of public traffic in this quarter of the capital. Such facts do not accord with the idea that any one of these archways was a gateway. Furthermore, when their real destination could be more accurately ascertained than at present, Gyllius found that they formed the entrances to an artificial harbour within the line of the fortifications. This explanation of their presence in the wall is perfectly satisfactory, and any other is superfluous. But if Balat Kapoussi was the only gate in this vicinity, it must have been the Gate of the Kynegos, which certainly stood in this part of the city.
There is nothing strange in the existence of a harbour within the line of the fortifications in the quarter of the Kynegon. It is what might be expected when we remember how closely the quarter was connected with the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus and the Palace of Blachernæ, and how necessary such a harbour was for the accommodation and protection of the boats and galleys at the service of the Court. That the harbour behind the three archways near Balat Kapoussi was the Neorion of Blachernæ is unlikely; the most probable situation of that Neorion being at Aivan Serai Iskelessi. But it may very well have been the harbour on the shore of the Kynegon at which, during the period of the Palæologi, the emperor and visitors to the palaces in the vicinity embarked or disembarked in moving to and fro by water. The landing at which the Spanish ambassadors to the Byzantine Court were received is described as near the Gate of the Kynegos: “Près de la porte de Quinigo.” [689] The galleys sent by the Council of Basle to convey John VII. Palæologus to the West, and which reached Constantinople fifteen days after the arrival of four Papal galleys on a similar errand, were detained for one day at Psamathia, until the rival parties had been prevailed upon to keep the peace, and then came and moored at the Kynegon (εἰς τὸν Κυνηγὸν). There the emperor embarked for Italy, under the escort of the Papal galleys; there the galley having on board the patriarch, who was to accompany the emperor, joined the Imperial squadron; and there the emperor disembarked upon his return from the Councils of Ferrara and Florence. [690] During the siege of 1453 a fire-ship, with forty young men on board, proceeded from the Gate of the Kynegos to burn the Turkish vessels which had been conveyed over the hills into the Golden Horn. [691] All this implies the existence of a port somewhere on the shore of the quarter of the Kynegon.
In the third place, all discussion in regard to the proper application of the names Basilikè Pylè, and Gate of the Kynegos must proceed upon the indisputable fact that the epithet “Imperial,” belonged to an entrance at the eastern extremity of the Harbour Walls. In proof of this, it is enough to cite, meantime, the statement of Phrantzes [692] that Gabriel of Treviso was entrusted with the defence of a tower which guarded the entrance of the Golden Horn, and which stood opposite the Basilikè Pylè. Unless, therefore, it can be shown that there was more than one Basilikè Pylè in the fortifications beside the Golden Horn, the claim of Balat Kapoussi to the Imperial epithet falls to the ground. If the existence of two Imperial gates in the Harbour Walls can be established, then Balat Kapoussi has the best right to be regarded as the second entrance bearing that designation. In that case, however, the conclusion most in harmony with the facts involved in the matter is that the second Basilikè Pylè was only the Gate of the Kynegos under another name. [693]
Why, precisely, the entrance was styled the Gate of the Hunter is a matter of conjecture. Some explain the name as derived from a Kynegion, or theatre for the exhibition of wild animals, [694] such as existed on the side of the city facing Scutari; and in favour of this opinion is the term “Kynegesion” (τοῦ Κυνηγεσίου), employed by Phrantzes [695] to designate the quarter adjoining the entrance. But the ordinary style of the name lends more countenance to the view that the gate was in some way connected with the huntsmen attached to the Byzantine Court, hunting being always a favourite pastime of the emperors of Constantinople. Their head huntsman (ὁ πρωτοκυνηγὸς) was an official of some importance. Besides directing his subordinates, it was his prerogative to hold the stirrup when the emperor mounted horse, and the Imperial hunting-suit was his perquisite, if stained with blood in the course of the chase. [696]
A gate, known as the Gate of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist (Πόρτα τοῦ ἁγίου Προδρόμου καὶ Βαπτιστοῦ), was also situated in the quarter of the Kynegon, and near the Church of St. Demetrius. [697] That name might readily be given to a gate in this vicinity, either in honour of the great Church and Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Petra, on the heights above Balat Kapoussi, or in honour of the church of the same dedication, which, there is reason to think, stood on the site of the Church of St. John the Baptist, found, at present, on the shore to the north-east of that entrance. Whether the Gate of St. John has disappeared, or was the Gate of the Kynegos under another name, is a point upon which there may be a difference of opinion. Dr. Mordtmann [698] identifies it with the Gate of the Kynegos, which, according to him, was the archway adorned with the Nikè. It may be identified with the Gate of the Kynegos, even on the view that the latter was Balat Kapoussi. That a Church of St. John stood in the neighbourhood of the Gate of the Kynegos is also intimated by Pachymeres, who records a fire which, in 1308, burnt down the quarter extending from that gate to the Monastery of the Forerunner. [699]
The gate next in order, as its Turkish name, Fener Kapoussi, proves, is the entrance which the foreign historians of the last siege style Porta Phani, Porta del Pharo. [700] This designation was, doubtless, the rendering of the Byzantine name of the gate, for the adjoining quarter, as appears first in a document dated 1351, went by its present name, Phanari (τοποθεσία τοῦ φανάρι), [701] also before the Turkish Conquest. A beacon light must have stood at this point of the harbour.
From the Porta Phani eastwards to Petri Kapoussi, the next gate, the fortifications consisted of two lines of wall which enclosed a considerable territory, the inner wall describing a great curve on the steep northern front of the Fifth Hill. The enclosure was called the Castron of the Petrion [702] (τὸ κάστρον τῶν Πετρίων), after Petrus, Master of the Offices in the reign of Justinian the Great; [703] and the surrounding district was named the Petrion (Πετρίον, τὰ Πετρία, [704] “Regio Petri Patricii”). [705] It must be carefully distinguished from the district of Petra (Πέτρα), at Kesmè Kaya, above Balat Kapoussi.
In the angle formed by the junction of the two walls, a little to the west of the Porta Phani, was a small gate, Diplophanarion, [706] which led from the Castron into the city.
Petri Kapoussi, at the eastern extremity of the Castron, and in the outer wall, communicated with the street skirting the Golden Horn, and retains the ancient name of the district. [707] Dr. Mordtmann [708] identifies it with the Porta Sidhera (Σιδηρᾶ Πίλη), near the Convent of the Petrion. [709] That the Petrion was not confined to the Castron, but included territory on either side of the enclosure, is manifest from the fact that whereas the wall between the Porta Phani and the Porta Petri is without a single tower, mention is yet made of towers in the Petrion. [710]
Of the churches in this quarter, St. Stephen of the Romans, St. Julianè, St. Elias, and St. Euphemia, the two last were the most important. The Church of St. Euphemia claimed to be an older foundation than Constantinople itself, being attributed to Castinus, Bishop of Byzantium, 230-237. It was restored by Basil I., and his daughters entered the convent attached to the church. [711] The Convent of Petrion, as it was called, must have been of considerable importance, for it was on several occasions selected as the place in which ladies of high rank, who had become politically inconvenient, were interned; as, for instance, Zoe, the dowager-empress of Leo the Wise, for conspiracy against Romanus Lecapenus; [712] Theodora, by her sister the Empress Zoe; [713] and Delassaina, the mother of the Comneni, with her daughters and daughters-in-law, by Nicephorus Botoniates. [714]
In the assaults made by foreign fleets upon the Harbour Walls, the Petrion, or Phanar, occupied a conspicuous place.
It was before the Petrion [715] that the Venetian galleys under Dandolo stood, July 17, 1203, and established the free end of their flying bridges upon the summit of the walls, whereby twenty-five towers were captured, and the city was recovered for Isaac Angelus. The Petrion was again prominent in the assault which the Crusaders delivered on April 12, 1204, when Constantinople passed into their hands and became the seat of a Latin Empire. Here the flying bridge of the ship Pelerine lodged itself on a tower, and allowed a bold Venetian and a French knight, André d’Urboise, to rush across, seize the tower, and clear a way for their comrades to follow. Here ladders were then landed, the walls scaled, three gates forced, and the city thrown open to the whole host of the invaders. [716]
In the siege of 1453, early on the morning of the 29th of May, the Phanar was fiercely attacked by the Turkish ships in the Golden Horn. [717] The attack was repulsed, and the Greeks remained masters of the situation, until the occupation of the city by the enemy’s land forces made further resistance impossible. The memory of the struggle is said to be preserved in the quarter by the name of the street Sandjakdar Youcousou (the Ascent of the Standard-bearer) and by the Turkish name for the Church of St. Mary Mougouliotissa, Kan Klissè (the Church of Blood). [718]
The succeeding gate, Yeni Aya Kapou, was opened, it would seem, in Turkish times, being first mentioned by Evlia Tchelebi. There is, however, one circumstance in favour of regarding it as a small Byzantine entrance, enlarged after the Conquest. On the right of the gate, within the line of the walls, are the remains of a large Byzantine edifice, which could hardly have dispensed with a postern.
Aya Kapou, the next entrance, as its Turkish name intimates, and the order of Pusculus requires, is the Porta Divæ Theodosiæ (Πύλη τῆς Ἁγίας Θεοδοσίας), [719] so named in honour of the adjoining Church of St. Theodosia (now Gul Djamissi), the first martyr in the cause of Icons, under Leo the Isaurian. The gate was also known by the name Porta Dexiocrates, after the district of Dexiocrates in which it stood. [720] This identification rests upon the fact that while Pachymeres [721] affirms that the body of St. Theodosia lay in the church dedicated to her memory, the Synaxaristes declares that she was buried in the Monastery of Dexiocrates. [722] Only by the supposition that the Church of St. Theodosia stood in the district of Dexiocrates can these statements be reconciled. The church is first mentioned by Antony of Novgorod. [723] The festival of the saint, falling on May 29th, coincided with the day on which, in 1453. the city was captured by the Turks. As usual, a large crowd of worshippers, many of them ladies, filled the sacred edifice, little thinking of the tragedy which would interrupt their devotions, when suddenly Turkish troops burst into the church and carried the congregation off into slavery. [724]
The next gate, Djubali Kapoussi, must be the entrance styled Porta Puteæ by Pusculus, [725] and Porta del Pozzo by Zorzo Dolfin; [726] for it is the only entrance between the Gate of St. Theodosia (Aya Kapou) and the Porta Platea (Oun Kapan Kapoussi), the gates between which the writers above mentioned place the Porta Puteæ. Although no Byzantine author has mentioned the Porta Puteæ by its Greek name, there can be no doubt that the name in vogue among foreigners was the translation, more or less exact, of the native style of the entrance, and that consequently the gate marks the point designated Ispigas (εἰς Πηγὰς) by the Chronista Novgorodensis, in his account of the operations of the Venetian fleet against the harbour fortifications on the 12th of April, 1204. The ships of the Crusaders, says that authority, were then drawn up before the walls, in a line extending from the Monastery of Christ the Benefactor and Ispigas, on the east, to Blachernæ, on the west: “Cum solis ortu steterunt, in conspectu ecclesiæ Sancti Redemptoris, quæ dicitur τοῦ Εὐεργέτου, et Ispigarum, Blachernis tenus.” [727]
The name of the gate alluded to the suburb of Pegæ (Πηγαὶ), situated directly opposite, on the northern shore of the harbour, and noted for its numerous springs of water. Dionysius Byzantius, in his Anaplus of the Golden Horn and the Bosporus, [728] describes the locality at length, naming it Krenides (Κρηνίδες). on account of its flowing springs (πηγαίων), which gave the district the character of marshy ground. The suburb appears under the name Pegæ in the history of the siege of the city by the Avars, when the Imperial fleet formed a cordon across the harbour, from the Church of St. Nicholas at Blachernæ to the Church of St. Conon and the suburb of Pegæ, to prevent the enemy’s flotilla of boats in the streams at the head of the Golden Horn from descending into the harbour. [729]
According to Antony of Novgorod, the suburb was situated to the west of St. Irene of Galata; it contained several churches, and was largely inhabited by Jews. [730] It appears again in the old Records of the Genoese colony of Galata in the fourteenth century, under the name Spiga, or De Spiga, to the west of that town. [731] Critobulus calls it the Cold Waters (Ψυχρὰ Ὕδατα), placing it on the bay into which Sultan Mehemet brought his ships over the hills from the Bosporus. [732]
As appears from the passage of the Chronista Novgorodensis, cited above, near the Porta Puteæ stood the Monastery of Christ the Benefactor, interesting as a conspicuous landmark in the scenes associated with the Latin Conquest of the city.
The fire which the Venetians set near the portion of the Harbour Walls captured in 1203, reduced to ashes the quarters extending from Blachernæ as far east as that monastery. [733] The monastery marked also the eastern extremity of the line of battle in which the ships of the Crusaders delivered the final attack upon the walls on April 12, 1204; [734] while the fire which illuminated the victory of that day started in the neighbourhood of that religious house, and raged eastwards to the quarter of Drungarius. [735] During the Latin occupation the Venetians established a dockyard on the shore in the vicinity of the monastery; [736] the adjoining district, including the Church of Pantocrator [737] (now Zeirek Klissè Djamissi) and the Church of Pantopoptes [738] (now Eski Imaret Mesdjidi), on the Fourth Hill, being their head-quarters.
