Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (23 page)

THE B
İ
NB
İ
RD
İ
REK CISTERN

Once past these ruins we take the first left off Divan Yolu, and a short way along on the right we come to the entrance to the ancient cistern known as Binbirdirek, “the Thousand and One Columns”. The cistern was restored in the years 1995–2002 and is now open as a tourist attraction. Unfortunately the restoration was badly done and what was once an awesome and romantic site has now lost its historical identity; nevertheless it is still very interesting.

The dimensions of the cistern are 64 by 56.4 metres or 3,610 square metres; thus it is the second largest covered cistern in the city, though with only a third the area of Yerebatan Saray. It is thought that the cistern was originally built in the second quarter of the fourth century by Philoxenus, a Roman senator who came to the city with Constantine the Great, although there is evidence that some of the structure at least dates to the fifth or sixth centuries. During the nineteenth century the cistern was used as a spinning-mill and more recently as a storehouse.

The cistern was originally about 19 metres high from the floor to the top of the little brick domes in herringbone design. The columns are in two tiers bound together by curious stone ties. There were originally 224 double columns in 16 rows of 14 each, but 12 of these were walled in not long after the cistern was completed. The impost capitals are plain except that some of them are inscribed with monograms of the stone masons.

Continuing along the left side of Divan Yolu, on the next block we pass the Galeri Kayseri, the best book shop in the city for works in English on Istanbul and other places in Turkey.

At the next corner we turn left on Piyer Loti Caddesi, named for the French writer Pierre Loti. At the end of the block and on the right we come to the Eminönü Belediye Ba
ş
bakanl
ı
ğ
ı
building, the Town Hall of the Eminönü district, which has now been merged with the Fatih district, the two together comprising the whole of the old city. A door to the right of the main entrance has a sign indicating the entrance to the Theodosius Cistern, another of the city’s late Roman subterranean reservoirs. The cistern measures 42.5 by 25 metres; its roof of brick domes in the usual herringbone design is supported by 32 columns of white marble in four rows of eight each, with some capitals of the the Corinthian order and others Doric, undoubtedly reused from older structures. The cistern is believed to have been built during the reign of Theodosius II (r. 408–50) by his sister Pulcheria, who would later marry her brother’s successor Marcian (r. 450–7). The cistern was summarily restored and opened to the public in 1994.

We once again turn to Divan Yolu. Then on the next block we see on the right side of the avenue the rather heavy türbe of Sultan Mahmut II (r. 1808–39) and its long garden wall. Mahmut died in 1839 and his türbe is in the then popular
Empire
style, a little pompous and formal. Here also are buried sultans Abül Aziz (r. 1861–76) and Abdül Hamit II (r. 1876–1909), together with a large number of imperial consorts and princes.

THE KÖPRÜLÜ COMPLEX

Directly opposite the türbe of Mahmut II, on the left side of Divan Yolu, we see an elegant Ottoman library of the seventeenth century. This is one of the buildings of the Köprülü külliyesi, whose other institutions we will presently see in the immediate neighbourhood. These buildings were erected in the years 1659–60 by two members of the illustrious Köprülü family, Mehmet Pa
ş
a and his son Faz
ı
l Ahmet Pa
ş
a. The Köprülü are generally considered to be the most distinguished family in the whole history of the Ottoman Empire. During the second half of the seventeenth century and the early years of the eighteenth, no fewer than five members of this family served as Grand Vezir, some of them among the most able who ever held that post. The library of the Köprülü külliyesi is a handsome little building with a columned porch and a domed reading-room, constructed in a mixture of brick and stone. The library contains an important collection of books and manuscripts many of which were the property of its founders, who were known in their time as Mehmet the Cruel and Ahmet the Statist.

One block beyond the library and on the same side of the street, we come to two other institutions of the Köprülü külliyesi, the mosque and the türbe of Mehmet the Cruel. The türbe is of a rather unusual type, in the sense that it is roofed only by a metal grille. This gave rise to the legend that the grave was deliberately left open to the elements, so that the falling rain could cool the shade of the Grand Vezir, who was burning in hell-fire because of the thousands of rebels he had executed while in office. In the graveyard just beside the türbe we see the tombstone of a modern member of this famous family, Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, the distinguished historian and sometimes Minister for Foreign Affairs, who died in 1966. The mosque is a few steps beyond the türbe, projecting out into the sidewalk of Divan Yolu. The mosque, which is octagonal in shape, was once the dershane, or lecture-room, of the Köprülü medresesi, most of which has now disappeared.

Directly across the avenue from the Köprülü mosque is the Çemberlita
ş
Hamam
ı
, one of the finest extant examples of a classical hamam. This hamam was founded by Nurbanu Valide Sultan some time before her death in 1583; she was the wife of Selim II and the mother of Murat III. She was a great builder: her magnificent mosque complex in Üsküdar is described in Chapter 19. Her architect there was Sinan, but he does not appear to have been responsible for the present beautiful structure, for it is not mentioned in the
Tezkere
, the official list of his works. This bath is still fortunately in use, at least the men’s section. It was originally double but part of the men’s section was destroyed when the avenue was widened. In general it follows the usual plan: a great domed camekân leads to a small three-domed so
ğ
ukluk, which opens into the hararet. This latter has a rather charming arrangement, seen also at Ca
ğ
alo
ğ
lu and elsewhere; inscribed in a square chamber is a circle of columns supporting an arcade on which rests the dome. In the corners are the little washing-cells, each with its dome and an attractive door; the pavements have geometric designs.

THE COLUMN OF CONSTANTINE

Just across the side street from the hamam we come to one of the most venerable monuments in the city, the Column of Constantine. Ths is known locally as Çemberlita
ş
, or the Hooped Column, hence the name of the surrounding neighbourhood; in English it was in times past called the Burnt Column because of the marks of a fire that raged around it in the eighteenth century. This column marks the centre of what was once the Forum of Constantine the Great and was erected by him to celebrate the dedication of the city as capital of the Roman Empire on 11 May in the year 330. Constantine’s forum with columned porticoes had the unusual shape of an oval. It has been compared to Bernini’s superb portico at St. Peter’s, though models nearer in time and place are not wanting: for example, the charming elliptical agora at Gerasa (Jerash) in Jordan built 200 years earlier, probably by Hadrian. Around it stood the usual public buildings: a Senate (there was still another Senate House off the Augustaeum), a Praetorium, and several temples and churches. And of course it was adorned with statues both Christian and pagan. The relics of all this grandeur are now buried some three metres beneath the present level of the road, and all that remains visible is the column, itself, much mutilated.

The column now consists of a very ungainly masonry base about ten metres high surmounted by a shaft of six porphyry drums, the joints between them hooped with iron bands; at the summit are ten courses of masonry topped by a marble block; the total height is 34.8 metres. Originally the column had a square pedestal standing on five steps; on the pedestal was a porphyry plinth and column base and seven porphyry drums. (The present masonry casing conceals the lowest of these.) At the summit, instead of the present masonry, there was a large capital, presumably Corinthian, upon which stood a statue of Constantine as Apollo. The iron hoops were an early addition, put on in 416 because the lowest part of the column had a piece knocked out of it and was thought unsafe. The statue of Constantine fell down as the result of a violent wind in 1106, and some 50 years later Manuel I Commenus replaced the capital by the masonry courses we see today, on top of which he placed a large cross. The lower masonry is Turkish work added in 1779 in order to bolster up the column. The column has recently been restored and the iron hoops have been replaced by new ones.

The ceremony of the original dedication of the column was a curious mixture of assorted pagan and Christian rites. Buried under the column or in the statue, itself, was the most incredible collection of relics: the Palladium of Troy, the hatchet of Noah, the stone from which Moses made water flow, the baskets and remains of the loaves with which Christ fed the multitude, the nails of the Passion (intertwined with the rays of Apollo!) and bits of the True Cross discovered by St. Helena at Jerusalem for the occasion. And the Apollo above did not prevent the people from later worshipping the deified Emperor, converted into a Christian saint, in a chapel at the base of the column.

VEZ
İ
R HANI

Leaving the main avenue for a moment, we turn to the right on Vezir Han Caddesi, the street which runs downhill beside the Column of Constantine. A short distance down the right side of this street we come to the entrance to Vezir Han
ı
, another institution of the Köprülü külliyesi. Such hans, or kervansarays, were commercial establishments where a travelling merchant could not only obtain food and lodging for the night but could also sell or store his goods. They are huge and stoutly-built structures of stone, or stone and brick, with two or three storeys around a great courtyard. One enters through a monumental gateway with very strong doors of thick wood, bound with iron, that are locked and barred at night. The vast courtyard is surrounded with porticoes, the one on the ground floor giving access to the windowless storerooms and stables, with staircases on each side leading up to the first floor gallery, more open and brighter, from which the living rooms were reached. In the centre of the courtyard there was generally a small mosque. Today, with the replacement of the horse and camel by the motor-truck, the character of these old hans has changed considerably, and they are now given over to every conceivable form of commerce and industry. Most of them, like Vezir Han
ı
, are in a shocking state of dilapidation and near ruin. Nevertheless they are still grand and picturesque, evoking something of the now almost vanished Oriental atmosphere of old Stamboul.

Returning once again to Divan Yolu, we continue on past Constantine’s column on the same side of the street to an interesting mosque, Atik Ali Pa
ş
a Camii. This is one of the oldest mosques in the city, having been built in 1496 by the Had
ı
m (Eunuch) Atik Ali Pa
ş
a, Grand Vezir of Sultan Beyazit II. Surrounded by a quiet garden off the busy street, it is an attractive little mosque, especially from the outside. Its plan is somewhat unusual, in that it consists of a rectangular room divided into unequal parts by an arch. The western and larger section is covered by a dome, the eastern by a semidome under which is the mihrab, as if in a sort of great apse. The western section is also flanked to north and south by two rooms with smaller domes. The semidome and the four small domes have stalactite pendentives, a common feature in mosques of early date.

Atik Ali Pa
ş
a Camii originally had several dependencies: a tekke, an imaret and a medrese. Of these only a part of the medrese remains; it is across the Divan Yolu from the mosque, the remainder having been destroyed some time ago when the road was widened. This building, though mutilated, is interesting as being one of the very few medreses of the pre-classical period that survive in the city.