LALELİ MOSQUE COMPLEX

Laleli, Fatih - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'37.0"N 28°57'23.0"E / 41.010278, 28.956389



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The complex is located in the Laleli neighbourhood of Eminönü at the intersection of Ordu Street and Fethi Bey Street. It was built by Sultan Mustafa III between 1760-1763, and the architect is thought to have been either Mehmed Tahir Ağa or Hacı Ahmed Ağa. The complex is made up of a mosque, a soup kitchen, a public fountain, a fountain with a spout, a mausoleum, an inn and a medresse. The mosque forms the centre of the complex. The substructure of the mosque functions as both a basement and a courtyard. The courtyard is above ground level and accessible by steps.

The Laleli mosque is located in the centre of this raised courtyard. It is one of the finest examples of 18th century Ottoman architect. The 24-window main dome is supported by three half domes located at the entrance and kiblah, or direction toward Mecca. There are two minarets each with a single gallery. The alem, or decorative metal device atop the minarets, are especially unusual. The mosque was designed in the Baroque style and is illuminated by 105 windows. The interior walls are covered with coloured porphyry marble.

The fountain and mausoleum of the complex are located on the corner of Ordu Street on the Aksaray side. The front tombs contain the remains of Sultan Mustafa III and Sultan Selim III. Next to them are the tombs of the Haseki Sultans. The inn of the complex is located to the north of the mosque on Fethi Bey Street and is still used as a market. The basement of the mosque, which was not originally used for commercial purposes, also serves as a marketplace today. The medresse of the complex has not survived to the present day.

The Laleli Complex was built between 1760 and 1763 by Sultan Mustafa III (1754-1757). It is the last royal complex to be built in Istanbul and follows the Ottoman baroque convention established at the Nuruosmaniye Complex built a decade earlier. Most scholars attribute this monument to Mehmed Tahir Ağa, while others have suggested a role for head-architect Hacı Ahmed Ağa. The word "Lale", in Turkish, is a tulip. The name Laleli, which the complex shares with its neighborhood, is thought to either refer to a local saint named Laleli Baba whose tomb stood near the mosque until the mid 1950's or the Laleli Fountain, which is mentioned in 18th century sources.

The complex consists of a mosque (cami), madrasa (medrese), soup-kitchen (imaret), fountain (çeşme), sabil, tombs (türbe), a room for the timekeeper of the mosque (muvakkithane), housing for the imam and muezzin and a han and stores built as an endowment for the religious foundation. The nearby Çukurcuma baths, although built earlier, are often considered a part of the Laleli complex. The mosque and soup kitchen are located inside a rectangular walled-in precinct that is raised considerably above the street level on a tall basement.

The precinct is entered through two main gates located at the two southern corners facing Ordu Street. Both gates are vaulted and open into ramps that lead up to the precinct level. The mosque is placed diagonally inside the precinct, with its qibla wall facing the southeast gate. The soup-kitchen is sited to its northwest. Flanking the southwest gate are the sabil and the Tomb of Sultan Mahmud III and Sultan Selim III, both of which are incorporated into the walls of the cemetery located at street level to the west of the raised precinct.

Oriented along the northwest-southeast axis, the mosque has of a square prayer hall and a rectangular courtyard about twice its size that precedes it to the northwest. The courtyard is enveloped by a continuous arcade composed of eighteen domed bays five of which form the mosque portico and has an ablution fountain at its center. It is entered through a main portal to the northwest, in axis with the mosque entrance, and two side entrances that flank the portico. The portal leading into the prayer hall is located at the center of the portico and bears an inscriptive plaque referring to the 1783 restoration. The Laleli complex was restored thoroughly after a fire in 1783.

A fire swept the neighborhood in 1911, destroying the madrasa, which was located on a side street to the east of the complex. What remained of the madrasa and the 18th century residential neighborhood was demolished in 1918 and development followed a newly established orthogonal street pattern. The monument's original context was disrupted a second time in 1956, during the enlargement of the highway to its south, when the precinct wall and gates were moved further north and new stores were built along its southern wall. Since then, Laleli has been gradually transformed from a residential to a touristic neighborhood that is centered on international trade.

The prayer hall is square, capped with a dome carried on eight tall columns that form an octagon in plan. The square hall is extended by a three-bay narthex to the northwest and rectangular mihrab apse projecting to the southeast. Side arcades composed of twelve bays flank the whole on the exterior. The narthex gallery has two balconies projecting to the right and left of the entrance carried on marble pillars. The right balcony, protected by a gilt screen, is reserved for the sultan and is accessed primarily through an enclosed and gated ramp outside the mosque. The left balcony is the müezzin's lodge.

The dome of the Laleli mosque is 12.50 meters in diameter at a height of 24.50 meters, about half the size and height of the dome at Nuruosmaniye. It is carried on an octagonal drum made of eight arches, with semi-domes attached to the corner arches and larger semi-domes joining the arches above mihrab and the central bay of the narthex. The eight columns that carry the dome arches are engaged with the side walls, with the exception of the two at the narthex. At the corners, angular squinches provide transition from the square plan to the octagonal crown.

The interior of the prayer hall is well-lit with twenty-four windows in the dome, five windows in the large semi-domes and three in each of the small semi-domes. There are also casement windows at ground level that open into the side arcades, and a tier of arched windows above, topped by circular windows below the dome arches. All windows, with the exception of the casements, are made up of combinations of white and colored glass. In addition to sculptural elements such as pilasters and cornices that animate the prayer hall, the interior of the Laleli mosque is enlivened by the polychrome arrangement made of marble wall panels that reflect various shades of yellow, red and blue.

The mihrab and minbar are also made of precious marbles. On the exterior, the dome on its octagonal drum sits flatly on the large rectangular mass its understructure, which is crowned with large weight turrets at its corners. The baroque character is expressed with regularly spaced pilasters with spreading capitals that merge into the thick cornice that unites the prayer hall and the courtyard. Concave pilasters are also employed between the dome windows, among them eight curved buttresses.

Minarets
There are two minarets located at either end of the portico flanking the courtyard entrances; they have single balconies and stone caps. The left minaret was built about six years after the completion of the mosque. The construction is two courses of brick alternated with a single layer of cut stone, with the exception of the minarets and superstructure, which are made entirely of cut stone.

Inn
The Çukurçeşme or Sunken Fountain han is also called the Büyük Taş Han or big stone han. Its irregular plan manifests the constraints of the urban fabric at its time of construction. It has a long rectangular porticoed court that is entered through a long vaulted passage to the south; passages here lead into two smaller courtyards. The inn of the complex is located to the north of the mosque on Fethi Bey Street and is still used as a market. The basement of the mosque, which was not originally used for commercial purposes, also serves as a marketplace today.

The plan of this too is almost indescribable. We enter through a very long vaulted passage, with rooms and a small court leading from it, and emerge into a large courtyard, in the middle of which a ramp descends into what were once the stables. Around this porticoed courtyard open rooms of most irregular shape, and other passages lead to two additional small courts with even more irregular rooms! One seems to detect in this the ingenious but perverse mind of Mehmet Tahir Ağa. The han has now been restored and houses a restaurant and shops.

The Basement
The original function of the basement underneath the Laleli mosque is not known. Built of regularly spaced piers and covered with vaults, it remained enclosed until 1957, when its southern wall was torn down during highway expansion. It was then converted into an underground shopping plaza with a western entrance and a row of stores was added facing Ordu Street to the south. The underground plaza has a fountain at its center and is lit through large basement windows placed around the mosque walls.

The Tombs and Cemetery
The Tomb of Sultan Mustafa III and Sultan Selim III and the sabil are located along the cemetery wall to the west of the southwest precinct gate. In addition to Sultan Mustafa III, the tomb houses his mother Mihrişah Sultan, his son and later successor Sultan Selim III, his daughters Hibetullah and Fatma Sultans and Mihrimah Sultan. It is an octagonal building crowned with a dome and preceded by a portico to the north. Its exterior appearance is marked by wide corner pilasters and thick cornices that wrap the building between the two tiers of windows and below the recessed drum.

Sixteenth century tiles adorn the tomb on the interior crowned by a wide band of calligraphy that envelops the walls. A smaller tomb inside the cemetery houses the graves of the Sultan Mustafa III's favorites or Haseki Sultanlar. There is a third, open tomb dedicated to Adilşah Kadın; it is protected by an intricate bronze canopy.

Sabil
The sabil is raised on a circular base and has concave windows facing the street. Its windows are covered with bronze lattices that were originally gilt and the wide segments of its large eave resembles the petals of a flower.

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BODRUM (MESİH PASHA) MOSQUE

Laleli, Fatih - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'30.5"N 28°57'19.7"E / 41.008472, 28.955472



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Myrelaion Monastery is one of those Christian churches converted into mosques. Every time I visit such places I feel my heart in anguish, but I also sense some uncertainty, because you never know in what degree the initial building suffered alterations. The name of the current mosque is Bodrum Camii. The beautiful monastery, with its distinctive architecture, typical to that Byzantine age: a smaller dome, which doesn’t touch directly the main structure - the two architectural elements being joined by a cylindrical tympanum.

The monastery endured much destruction and it was eventually abandoned after the fire of 1911, resting half-buried into the ground, beneath earth, rocks and rubbish. Archaeological excavations began in 1965, with the purpose of digging up the monastery. In 1986 the monastery was restored and in the next year it was reopened as a mosque, retaining this purpose until this day.

At first sight, the interior of the church looks like an ordinary mosque. Only the right-sided positioning of the mihrab indicates the Christian origin of the building. On a closer look, the trilobated sanctuary with its three independent domes becomes evident, and so does the cross formed by the four crossed arches which support the Byzantine dome. After such destruction and desolation, the place where once was the sanctuary treasures now only one preserved fresco.

The fresco depicts Empress Theodora kneeling with her arms open and praying to the Mother of God, Who has her right hand reaching towards the Empress and her left hand holding Christ the Savior. The outward niches girdling the church bestow harmony and elegance on its external appearance.

The Bodrum mosque was formerly the Church of the Monastery of Myrelaion. It is located in Laleli, a part of today’s İstanbul’s historical peninsula. The Myrelaion Church was built on a cross-square plan, by Emperor Romanos І Lecapenos as a family chapel when he converted his nearby palace to a monastery in 922. Romanos І Lecapenos was the son of an imperial guardsman of Armenian named Theophylaktos. Romanos did not take any refined education but he advanced through the ranks of army during the reign of the Emperor Leo VІ.

First he became the general of the naval and after served as admiral on the fleet. After becoming very influential, he started to have a close relationship with the underage Constantine VІІ and in 919 he married his daughter with him and became the “father of the emperor”. In 920, he became the co-emperor. He was in the power until 944 when he deposed by his sons. The monastery sits on the ruins of the 5th century rotunda and is also known as a female monastery (Nunnery). Emperor Romanos created a complex place which includes a monastery, church and a burial place.

The church also became a burial place for their family. Between 922 and 961, six members of the Lecapenos family were buried in the church. The church was damaged during the Crusades in 1203. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the church was converted into a mosque by Grand Vizier Mesih Paşa around 1500s. Nowadays this mosque is called "Bodrum Camii", bodrum means an enclosed area that is generally use for storage that is partially or completely underground however it is also known as "Mesih Paşa Camii" named after the Grand Vizier.

Romanos Lecapenos was an emperor during 920 to 944. As a matter of fact he was an uspurer to the throne; he wanted to build a palace for himself so he bought a late antique rotunda which was built in the 5th century. Both entrances of the rotunda were closed by walls. The inner side of the rotunda was supported by approximately eighty columns to hold the ceiling where the rotunda was transformed into a cistern.

The ceiling was divided into two parts; one half was constructed as a palace and a terrace, where the other half was being used as the courtyard. Lecapenos also wanted to build a family chapel next to his palace. Myrelaion church was built on the south-west of Rotunda which was attached to the palace. The church was a two storey building and it was located at the same level with the palace and the terrace. A same sized substructure was built beneath the church with the aim of this church being at the same level with the palace. Although the church and the substructures are not connected inside, they both carry their individual entrances outside.

The Myrelaion church was built on a cross-square plan which became popular after the basilica plan in the 9th century. The term "four-column church" is also applied to this kind. In this type of church, forms are massed in a pyramidal manner, the vaults cascading downward from the top. There was a dome in the center of the church which rises above a drum, whose windows around its base provide the light to focus on the center. The dome is supported by four columns that divide the interior space into nine units.

The narthex of the church has three bays which were separated by the arches. The central bay has a dome vault; however the other ones have cross-groined vaults.” “Three archways lead from the narthex into the nave. In the nave there is a central hall with four columns that carry the dome. The aisles lead into clover-shaped pastoforion or side rooms that are linked to the sanctuary in the middle.

The inner side of the church was also decorated by mosaics and marble revetments. In the crypt, where the Lecaponos’s family were buried has a fresco painting from the Palaogeloion Dynasty, still exists in the mosque. In the painting, there is a female figure kneeling and supplicating from a standing Mother of God. The exterior parts of the walls are semicircular buttresses and the eastern side of the church is dominated by the semi-hexagonal apses of the sanctuary and the side rooms. The whole church is made by bricks.

The church is used as a burial place for Lecapenos, his family and Romanos І. First his wife Theodora in 922 and after by order: his son Christopher in 931, Constantine’s (his son) wife
Helena in 940, his son Constantine in 946, Romanos І himself in 946 and Emperor Constantine VІІ’s wife Helena in 961. Romanos was the only emperor who was not buried in Havariun or the church of the Holy Apostles, because Romanos became emperor by making her daughter marry with Constantine VІІ and after eliminating Constantine VІІ.

Some years before 922, possibly during the wars against Simeon I's Bulgaria, the drungarius Romanos Lekapenos bought a house in the ninth region of Constantinople, not far from the Sea of Marmara, in the place called Myrelaion ("the place of myrrh" in Greek). After his accession to the throne this building became the nucleus of a new imperial palace, intended to challenge the neighbouring Great Palace of Constantinople, and the family shrine of the Lekapenos family.

The first person to be buried there was his wife Theodora, in December 922, followed by his eldest son and co-emperor Christophoros, who died in 931. By doing so, Romanos interrupted a six-century old tradition, whereby almost all the Byzantine emperors since Constantine I were buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Later the Emperor converted his palace into a nunnery and, after his deposition and death in exile as monk in the island of Prote in June 948, he too was buried in the church.

Romanos I desired for the privilege of being buried in the Havariun church also known as Holy Apostles, however, he was buried in the Myrelaion church as he was not considered from the royal blood. There are still surviving traces of the burials in the Archeology Museum in İstanbul. Furthermore, the palace of Romanos was used as a monastery, converted by Romanos II. Not only Romanos ІІ locked his sister to the monastery but also the wife and the daughter of the Komnenos І were locked to this monastery as a nun. That’s why the monastery was also known as a nunnery.

The whole complex was damaged because of the Crusades in 1203 by the fire incidents. In 1261, Michael ІХ was recaptured the Constantinople and started to restore Constantinople from its damages. Michael ІХ was one of the member of the Palaeologian Dynasty. Myrelaion church was also restored in the late 13th century, during the Palaeologian Dynasty in 1261. During these repairs, a burial chapel was added in the substructure of the building. The shrine was ravaged by fire in 1203, during the Fourth Crusade. Abandoned during the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204-1261), the building was repaired at the end of the thirteenth century, during the period of the Palaiologan restoration.

After the conquest of the Ottoman Empire, the church was converted into a mosque by the Grand Vizier Mesih Ali Paşa, under the ruling of the Sultan ІІ Beyazıd. The mosque is also known as Bodrum Camii, named after the cistern beneath the monastery, coming from the word "Bodrum" in Turkish language. A fountain and faucets for ablution was constructed near the mosque. In 1782, so far the biggest fire in history of Istanbul damaged the mosque.

After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Myrelaion was converted into a mosque by Grand Vizier Mesih Paşa around the year 1500, during the reign of Sultan Bayezid II. The mosque was named after its substructure (the meaning of the Turkish word bodrum is "subterranean vault", "basement"), but was also known under the name of its founder. The edifice was damaged again by fires in 1784 and 1911, when it was abandoned.

Bodrum Mosque (Turkish: Bodrum Camii, or Mesih Paşa Camii named after its convert) in Istanbul, Turkey, is a former Eastern Orthodox church converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. The church was known under the Greek name of Myrelaion. The medieval structure, rather incongruously choked on three sides by modern blocks, stands in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighbourhood of Laleli, one kilometre west of the ruins of the Great Palace of Constantinople.

However, the mosque was damaged most by the fire in 1911. The restoration of the mosque was on a long hold until 1986. At the moment, it is used as a mosque, Bodrum Camii. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to see any remaining of the monastery from the past. The cistern which is constructed by Romanos was used for water storage in the Byzantine period however now it is turned into a shopping mall.

 In 1784 and 1911, the mosque was gravely damaged due to back fire incidents. However, after 1965 C.L.Striker came to İstanbul and cleaned its cellar and did a digging to find out something related with the monastery of Romanos. After 1986, it was completely restored by an institution and now it is used as a mosque.

You can still see the columns and the ceiling of the cistern. Now the "bodrum" of the mosque which was the burial chapel in the past is used for only Friday prayers. Today, the church is visited by many tourists where their feelings and memories from the church are kept in the "Visitors Book". Most tourists seem to appreciate the restoration that they can still have a chance to see the remaining of the church and its features from the past.

The building, whose masonry consists entirely of bricks, is built on a foundation structure made of alternated courses of bricks and stone, and has a cross-in-square (or quincunx) plan, with a nine meter long side. The central nave (naos) is surmounted by an umbrella dome, with a drum interrupted by arched windows, which gives to the structure an undulating rhythmus. The four side naves are covered by barrel vaults. The edifice has a narthex to the west and a sanctuary to the east.

The central bay of the narthex is covered by a dome, the two side bays by cross vaults. The nave is partitioned by four piers, which substituted in the Ottoman period the original columns. Many openings - windows, oeil-de-boeufs and arches - give light to the structure. The exterior of the building is characterized by the half cylindrical buttresses which articulate its façades. Originally an exonarthex existed too, but in the Ottoman period it was replaced by a wooden portico.

The building has three polygonal apses. The central one belongs to the sanctuary (bema), while the lateral are parts of two clover-shaped side chapels (pastophoria), prothesis and diakonikon. The Ottomans built a stone minaret close to the narthex. The building was originally decorated with a marble revetment and mosaics, which disappeared totally. As a whole, Bodrum mosque shows strong analogies with the north church of the Fenari Isa complex.

The substructure, in contrast with the building, has an austere and rough aspect. Originally its purpose was only that of bringing the church to the same level of the palace of Lekapenos. After the restoration in the Palaiologan period it was used as burial chapel. This edifice is the first example of a private burial church of a Byzantine emperor, starting so a tradition typical of the later Komnenian and Palaiologan periods. Moreover, the building represents a beautiful example of the cross-in-square type church, the new architectural type of the middle Byzantine architecture.

The palace of Myrelaion was built on top of a giant fifth century rotunda which, with an external diameter of 41.8 meters, was the second largest, after the Roman Pantheon, in the ancient world. In the tenth century the rotunda was not used anymore, and then it was converted - possibly by Romanos himself - into a cistern by covering its interior with a vaulted system carried by at least 70 columns. Near the palace the Emperor built a church, which he intended from the beginning to use as burial place for his family.

The building was finally restored in 1986 when it was reopened as mosque. In 1990, the cistern was restored too, and it has hosted a shopping mall for a few years. Now the cistern is used by the women to pray. The thickness of its stone wall is 5 m and it measures 28 x 22 m. The mosque was named after its substructure (the meaning of the Turkish word ‘bodrum’ is subterranean vault or basement).

In 1930, an excavation led by David Talbot Rice discovered the round cistern. In 1964-1965, a radical restoration led by the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul replaced almost all the external masonry of the edifice, and was then interrupted. In 1965, two parallel excavations led by art historian Cecil L. Striker and by R. Naumann focused respectively on the substructure and on the imperial palace. The cistern, near the church and now used as a store, has a roof 30 m in diameter, supported by 70 columns; most of them are original, with heights ranging from 2.5 to 2.9 m.

A simple minaret of cut stone is attached to the northwest corner of the narthex. Surrounded by a walled precinct in Ottoman times, the Bodrum mosque is threatened by encroaching rows of concrete apartment buildings today.

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TAYYARE APARTMENT BUILDINGS

Laleli, Fatih - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'36.1"N 28°57'26.7"E/ 41.010022, 28.957419



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After the notorious fire that burnt off 7.500 houses in the neighbourhoods of Cibali and Fatih on May 31, 1918 a campaign was organized to create shelters for the victims, thousands of people who needed new homes. Apart from the efforts of the government, civil donations were also accepted for that purpose and the Harikzedeğan (the victoms of the fire) apartment buildings wre planned and constructed from the years 1918 through 1922 by the architect Kemaleddin Bey.

The buildings are also important examples in that bring that social event of the Turkish history and the traditional Turkish architecture. The buildings were initially named "Tayyare (Aeroplane) Apartment Buildings", the former name of the Turkish Aviation League.

The edifices are composed of 4 apartment buildings, all being 6 floored, including the roof flooes and having similar inner yards.With 124 flats and 25 shops they have no basements and are the first ferro concrete constructions in Turkey. They had not received sufficent care until 1985 when an extensive restoration activity began.

WYNDHAM ISTANBUL OLD CITY HOTEL

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ROOMS
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FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Lale (Tulip) Restaurant, Cafe Sa’cez, Ambre Bar

WELLNESS AND SPA
Massages
Turkish Bath (Hammam)
Indoor Swimming Pool

CONFERENCE ROOMS
Wyndham Istanbul Old City Hotel, is an ideal place for your meetings, cocktails, seminars and training organizations. The hotel is located at heart of the city and is easily accessible from every corner. Our ballroom, and conference rooms - Hanzade Saloon and Galata Saloon - are equipped with the latest amenities of technology to provide you the best service and support the success of your organization.

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WEB SITE : Wyndham Istanbul Old City Hotel

MORE INFO & CONTACT
E-Mail : info@wyndhamoldcity.com
Phone : +90 212 514 9000

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MYRELAION PALACE

Laleli, Fatih - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'31.0"N 28°57'20.0"E / 41.008611, 28.955556



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Myrelaion Palace was a summer residence located between Aksaray and Laleli districts. Very few remains were found during the excavations. This palace was built at an unknown time into the ruins of a vast late antique palace. It stood on an elevated platform that was formed by inserting a cistern into the former circular main hall. The monumental semicircular courtyard in front of the rotunda which connected it to the colonnaded main street in the north, still survived, but was not accessible from the new buildings on the platform.

Under the name of Ta Amastrianou (= property of a man from Amastris) it was used as a market place and for executions. The new palace later became property of Romanos Lakapenos and was converted by him into a monastery at the beginning of his reign (920-944).

Excavations of a huge rotunda next to the Myrelaion started before the World War II (D.T. Rice and T. Macridy)1 and were completed in the 1960s by R. Naumann. The unearthed (probably) fifth-century centrally-planned building, originally covered with a large dome, has outer diameter 41.80 m which makes it the second largest circular structure of the Roman-Byzantine period (only the Pantheon in Rome surpasses it). Inner diameter is 29.60 m and the maximum thickness of the rotunda wall is 6.10 m.

The lower part of the building, which has survived up to 3.40 m, is built of cramped limestone blocks. The interior of the circular hall was articulated with large niches: four rectangular niches on the main axes and four semicircular niches on the diagonals. The exterior of the building is flatened on the north and south and there were entrances to the interior through the respective rectangular niches.

The north door was the main entrance and was preceded with a (probably) semicircular (sigma) portico of which only two columns and part of a stylobate survived in-situ. The reconstructed diameter of the semicircular colonnaded forecourt, which was located just south of the Mese street, is about 55 m. Due to the sloping ground there were eight semicircular steps in front of the south entrance. A fragment of wall projects from the south façade of the hall and a column base aligned with this wall was found nearby.

These remains are interpreted as part of a north-south colonnade which may have had its counterpart west of the south door of the rotunda. If so, there would be an elaborate entrance way leading to the rotunda from the south. Yet further south of the huge rotunda another centrally-planned building was excavated. This small structure stood on a lower level than the rotunda and had an opus sectile floor. The original function and identity of the rotunda are disputed. One of the possibilities, taking into account the probable fifth-century date of the complex, is that it was the palace of the Theodosian princess Arcadia.

Moreover, Naumann suggested that the sigma portico of the rotunda could be identified as the Amastrianon which served as a market and place for public executions in the Middle Ages (this identification accepted for example by A. Berger). According to Byzantine texts, the Amastrianon was an open space limited by a semicircular portico and adjacent to the Mese approximately in the location of the Myrelaion rotunda and it was defined by a semicircular portico and a straight wall which contained a gate.

The Patria (10th century) tell us other interesting details: For example, there were several reliefs and statues in the Amastrianon court, such as Zeus driving a chariot , turtles, a personification of the Lycus River and a relief of a man from Amastris with his servant. In the 8th century the rotunda behind the portico must have been in ruins (confirmed by the twentieth-century excavations) and it is quite possible that the sigma court may have become a market place by that time.

One of the most significant monuments in Istanbul's history has been one of its least fortunate survivors. A large rotunda from an Late Roman palace was incorporated as the substructure for the palace of Romanos Lecapenos in the early tenth century. The church, adjacent to Romanos' palace, was built on separate substructures, into which a funerary chapel was added in the Late Byzantine period. The site thus represents three major periods in the Byzantine history of the city.

The rotunda had been converted to a cistern when the tenth-century palace was added, with the insertion of dozens of columns to support the vaulting. In the early 1990s bulldozing for the construction of a hotel next door damaged the cistern. In 1993-94, the cistern was cleared, cleaned, and replastered by developers, who have turned it into a shopping bazaar -- one of the most surprising adaptive reuse projects I've seen. The terrace above was paved with marble.

Palace of Romanos I Lakapenos

The ruined rotunda was re-used when a new palatian building was erected directly on the top of it in the Early Middle Ages. Before the construction of the new palace started, the walls of the rotunda had been consolidated and both doors walled-up. The interior of what had left of the late antique structure was converted into a cistern whose vaulting, supported by re-used columns, created a leveled platform on which the medieval palace was built. The palace was considerably smaller than the rotunda and occupied only the eastern part of the platform.

It consisted of a rectangular hall (21.75 x 7.80 m) with two corner tower-like structures connected by a portico. Thus, the building resembled Roman corridor villae. The building was identified as the palace which belonged to the emperor Romanos I Lakapenos (920-944) and was converted by him to a nunnery, as it is known from the sources, situated near the Myrelaion church (also work of Romanos) which fortunately survived, converted into a mosque (Bodrum Camii).

Nevertheless, it is not certain whether Romanos built this palace. In this respect it has been suggested that the palace may be the same as the House of Krateros adjacent to the semicircular Amastrianon court (either the general Theodore Krateros serving under the emperor Theophilos (first half of the 9th century) or Andreas Krateros who was a domestikos in the reigns of Basil I and Leo VI (second half of the 9th century).

The church, now Bodrum Camii, suffered in a disasterous restoration in 1964-65 that replaced 90% of the exterior masonry with concrete bricks, altering the lines of the building. This restoration was abandoned before completion, and the building was re-restored in the late 1980s to a more satisfying appearance, although there is virtually no original surface left on the building.

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MYRELAION CISTERN BAZAAR

Laleli, Fatih - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'31.3"N 28°57'19.3"E / 41.008694, 28.955361



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Just a few meters before the entrance of the former monastery, my sight was attracted by a giant advertising panel that read “Myrelaion.” With my curiosity aroused, I went over there and I saw an inconspicuous small entrance. Descending a few steps, I found myself in a huge circular space: the old rotunda, once the palace cistern. However, nowadays it accommodates a clothing bazaar.

This rotunda was built somewhere in the 5th century and the historians are yet unable to determine its initial function. It has a huge dome and an outer diameter of almost 42 meters, being the largest rotunda of Roman-Byzantine era. Only the Roman Pantheon had a larger dome.

During the rule of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (10th century) it suffered some alterations, caused by the future adjacent construction of Myrelaion Monastery. Adding 74 extra columns, the Emperor transformed the rotunda into one of the eight cisterns of Constantinople.

During the years of Ottoman yoke, this space wasn’t used very differently than in our days. It accommodated fish markets, workshops, distilleries, steam baths and warehouses until early 1900s, when the site and the surrounding area became a dump.

The archaeologists begun to excavate this area in 1930s, and they brought to light the circular cistern and the palace of Emperor Romanos Lekapenos. Then, after several failed attempts of restoration and redevelopment of the space, in 1993 it became a bazaar.

The merchants assumed I was there for their leather coats, so they started to come around me, trying to lure me with their offers. At that moment I thought about the bad example given by those tourists who visit Constantinople just to buy fur, leather coats and such, neglecting or totally ignoring many other key aspects of the City.

As I left the cistern behind me and went up to the monastery, I thought that, after all, no matter how much the City would change, no matter how many new names it will acquire, no matter how many new buildings will be erected, no matter how many attempts will be made to keep into oblivion the marks of the “other” city - there will always be everywhere enough testimonies to resist this attempt of distortion.

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TAŞHAN CISTERN

Laleli, Fatih - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'38.5"N 28°57'23.2"E / 41.010694, 28.956444



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

Businessmen Kemal Ocak and Mehmet Karagül conducted research on Taşhan and bought it in 1987. They then hired the people that restored Topkapı Palace to carry out restoration work on the historical inn. The first stage of the restoration project, carried out in 1991 under the inspection of the Monuments' Committee, was completed in 1993. The second stage ended in 2000. During the project, the inn's dome and roof were restored to their original state.

Today, the large courtyard, where shops and the Byzantine cistern are located, serves as Arkat restaurant. When arriving in Taşhan from the crowded streets of Laleli, a big courtyard surrounded by colorful flowers welcomes the visitor. Stairs at the end of the courtyard open to the Byzantine cistern. Ocak says they decided to turn the section into a restaurant after restoration was completed. The section, where about 1,000-year-old historic structure is located, is called Arkat, which means a vaulted structure in Greek.

Among the first guests of Arkat restaurant was a former Polish president. Ocak says the historical structure draws mostly foreign attention. In fact, ambassadors and cultural attachés are among frequent visitors to the restaurant. Ocak says that residents of Istanbul are not really aware of the place. “Many historical structures in Turkey were left to their fate. Hoping that Istanbul would regain its historical monuments, I wanted to set this structure as an example. Everyone should preserve Istanbul.”

You will be picked up from your hotel and drive to Tashan Arkat Restaurant & Night Club Istanbul where you will fall in love, it's decoration. Tashan Arkat Restaurant is the one of the rare historical structureswhich was able to remain robust up to now in Istanbul and where You will be able to see Ottoman and Byzantine architectures together.

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WEB SITE : Taşhan Arkat Restaurant

MORE INFO & CONTACT
Phone : +90 212 514 4830
Fax : +90 212 514 4840

These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.