Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (49 page)

The church was originally quatrefoil in plan internally and trefoil externally. That is, the small central dome on a high drum was surrounded by four semidomes along the axes, all but the western one resting on the outer walls of the building, which thus formed exedrae; the whole was preceded by a narthex of three bays. But the entire southern side of the church was swept away in modern times and replaced by a squarish narthex which is in every direction out of line with the original building. The effect is most disconcerting. The church is still adorned with one art treasure from its Byzantine period, a very beautiful portative mosaic of the Theotokos Pammakaristos, the All-Joyous Mother of God. The obvious similarity of this icon to those we have seen at St. Nicholas and at the patriarchal church of St. George strongly suggests that they were all done by the same artist, working in the eleventh century. These are the only three such portative mosaics remaining in the city, and there are only about ten others still known to exist elsewhere.

MEGAL
İ
SCHOL
İ
O

As we leave the church we see off to our right the huge structure which dominates the skyline of this part of the city; it houses a very old and illustrious institution, the Greek Lycee of the Fener, known in Greek as the Megali Scholio, or the Great School. The present red brick building was built in 1881. But the original Megali Scholio, by tradition, was founded before the Turkish Conquest and remained the principal Greek institution of secular education throughout the course of Ottoman history. Here were educated many of the Greek voivodes (governors) and hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia, and many of the chief interpreters who often wielded such great influence at the Sublime Porte – men with the resounding names of the Byzantine aristocracy, Palaeologus, Cantacuzenus, Cantemir, Mavrocordato and Ypsilanti.

FROM FENER TO BALAT

We now retrace our steps back to the last turning before the church and there take the street to the right. This almost immediately brings us to a steep step-street which bounds the walled enclosure containing the churches of St. George Metochi and Vlach Saray. Halfway down the steps we come to another of the gateways to the enclosure. Beside the gate is a plaque honouring Demetrius Cantemir, a Feneriote Greek who became Prince of Moldavia. Cantemir wrote a history of the Ottoman Empire covering the years 1688–1710 and he also wrote an important treatise on Turkish musicology.

At the bottom of the steps we turn left and then right at the next corner, bringing us back to Vodina Caddesi. We retrace our steps to Fener Kap
ı
s
ı
, after which we continue walking up the shore of the Golden Horn.

About 100 metres beyond Fener Kap
ı
s
ı
we come to a restored meta-Byzantine building that now houses the Women’s Library and Cultural Centre. The library, which opened in 1990, is the first institution of its kind in Turkey. Its collection includes works by and about women in Turkish and other languages, including a complete collection of all the women’s magazines and periodicals published in Turkey in the late Ottoman era and in the early years of the Turkish Republic. It is also a research centre for women’s studies.

About 150 metres farther along, we see on our right a very astonishing church indeed, that of St. Stephen of the Bulgars. This and the building opposite, the former Exarchate, were erected in 1871, at a time when the Bulgarian Church was asserting its independence from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople. The church of St. Stephen is a Gothic building entirely constructed of cast iron! The church was prefabricated in Vienna and shipped down the Danube in sections, and then erected here on the shore of the Golden Horn. Not only the outside but the interior as well is of cast iron; even what appear to be panels of marble revetment prove on one’s knocking them to be iron, likewise the seemingly sculptured ornamentation! Nevertheless, the church is rather handsome, both its interior and exterior, and it is kept in excellent repair for the small community of Bulgarians who still worship there. The church is surrounded by a pretty and well-tended garden in which are buried several metropolitans of the Bulgarian Church.

Continuing along in the same direction, we come after about 250 metres to the Metochion of Mount Sinai, the oldest and grandest of the meta-Byzantine mansions of the Fener. This house is typical of the few remaining Feneriote mansions, chiefly of the seventeenth century, erected apparently in a continuation or modification of the old Byzantine style. They are constructed of alternate courses of stone and brick; each storey projects over the street, corbelled out on elaborate consoles; the cornice under the roof consists of courses of brick in saw-tooth design. They are very stoutly built, with massive walls and iron doors and window-shutters, more like fortresses than ordinary houses. The house which we are now looking at is of particular interest because it was for nearly three centuries the Metochion of the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Monastery of St. Catherine, first founded by Justinian, was for long a semi-autonomous church under the control of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The Monastery, like many others, has always been represented in Constantinople by one of its archimandrites, who first took up residence in this mansion in 1686. The Metochion is now abandoned and is rapidly falling into ruins.

Just beyond the Archimandrite’s mansion, a gateway leads us into the courtyard of the church of St. John the Baptist, the chapel of the monastery which was once part of the Metochion. The church is probably of Byzantine foundation, but it has been burned down and reconstructed several times and the present structure dates only from 1830
.
It is of no interest except for its connection with the Metochion of Mount Sinai.

BALAT

About 150 metres beyond the church we come to Balat Kap
ı
s
ı
, the site of another of the Byzantine sea-gates along the Golden Horn, of which nothing now remains. This has been identified variously as the Gate of the Kynegos (Hunter) or that of the Prodromos (St. John the Baptist). The Turkish name Balat is a corruption of the Greek Palation, or Palace, so called because of the Byzantine Palace of Blachernae which stood nearby. Although the gate has now disappeared, its name survives in that of the surrounding quarter, the picturesque and venerable Balat. Balat has been for many centuries one of the principal Jewish quarters of the city. Many of these were Greek-speaking Jews who lived here in Byzantine times, but these were later absorbed by the Sephardic Jews who emigrated from Spain in 1492 and took up residence in the Ottoman Empire on the invitation of Beyazit II. There are still half a dozen ancient synagogues in the quarter, one of them dating in foundation from Byzantine times, although most of the present structures date from no earlier than the first half of the nineteenth century. Although much of the Jewish community has now moved to more modern neighbourhoods of Istanbul or emigrated to Israel, some still remain in their old quarter in Balat, continuing to speak the medieval Ladino which they brought with them from Spain more than five centuries ago.

There are a few monuments of some minor interest in the immediate neighbourhood of Balat Kap
ı
s
ı
. The first of these monuments is found in the second street in from the highway along the Golden Horn and somewhat to the left of the gate. (Although the gate no longer exists, there is no mistaking its former location, for all the local streets converge on it.) After a few twists and turns through the tortuous streets, we come to the rather handsome church of Surp Re
ş
dagabet (Holy Archangels), which has been in the possession of the Armenian community since 1629. It appears to have taken the place of a church of the thirteenth or fourteenth century dedicated to the Taxiarch Saints, that is, the Archangels Michael and Gabriel as chiefs
(taxiarchoi)
of the celestial militia. The present church dates from a complete rebuilding in 1835.

FERRUH KETHÜDA CAM
İ
İ

To the right of Balat Kap
ı
s
ı
and on the same street as the church we come to a small mosque which is a minor work of the great Sinan. A long and handsomely written inscription in Arabic over the fine entrance portal of red conglomerate marble informs those who can read it that the mosque was built in A.H. 970 (A.D. 1562–3) by Ferruh A
ğ
a, Kethüda (Steward) of the Grand Vezir Semiz Ali Pa
ş
a. The building is of the simple rectangular type; it most probably once had a wooden ceiling with a little dome, but this has been replaced in a recent restoration by a flat concrete ceiling. The building is very long and shallow, with a long and shallow apse for the mihrab, which is adorned with tiles of the Tekfur Saray period. A wooden balcony runs along the west wall, but this is clearly not like the original, for it obstructs the windows in an awkward way. A deep porch precedes the mosque; it must have been rather impressive, supported, as it would appear, on eight columns, the plinths for which remain; but it has been very summarily restored and glazed in. All the same, it is attractive with its grand marble portal, two handsome niches with pretty conch tops, and at each end a curious sort of “anta” or projection of the mosque wall with windows above and below. This is the handsomest and most interesting of Sinan’s many mosques of this simple type and it deserves a more sympathetic restoration.

There is an ancient hamam just to the east of the mosque. This has been attributed to Sinan, but wrongly; it is not in the
Tezkere
and it appears much earlier in a
vakfiye
(deed of a pious foundation) of Fatih himself. It is not very impressive and is hardly worth a visit.

The oldest and most historic synagogue in Balat is a short way to the south on Kürkçü Çe
ş
me Soka
ğ
ı
. This is the recently restored Ahrida Synagogue, which dates back to the first half of the fifteenth century, the only synagogue in Istanbul remaining from the Byzantine era. (Permission to visit the synagogue can be obtained from the office of the Chief Rabbinate in Beyo
ğ
lu.)

BALAT TO AYVANSARAY

We now retrace our steps to Ferruh Kethüda Camii and continue walking northwards. About 150 metres beyond the mosque we see on the left side of the street the gateway of a little Greek church, interesting only because of its great age. This is the church of the Panaghia Balinu, which is known to have stood on this site as early as 1597, although the present structure dates only from 1730, with later alterations. There are a great many so-called “modern” Greek churches in Istanbul of comparable antiquity, although few of their present structures predate the nineteenth century. The earliest list of post-Conquest Greek churches is that by Tryphon Karabeinikoff, who was sent to Istanbul in 1583 and again in 1593 by the Czar to distribute money to the Christian churches there. Tryphon listed seven monasteries and convents and 47 churches which were functioning in Istanbul at that time, including the Panaghia Balinu.

About 100 metres farther along we see on the right another of the churches mentioned by Tryphon, that of St. Demetrius Kanabu. Although the present church dates only to 1730 at the earliest, its origins go back to Byzantine times, for a church of that name is known to have existed on this site as early as 1334. It is suggested that the church may have been founded by the family of Nicholas Kanabu, who became emperor for a few days in April 1204, in the brief interval between the deposition of the co-emperors Alexius IV and Isaac II and the later usurpation by Alexius V. St. Demetrius served as the Patriarchal church from 1597 until 1601, when the Patriarchate moved to its present site.

About 150 metres farther along on Mustafa Pa
ş
a Bostan
ı
Soka
ğ
ı
we turn right on a short street that leads out to the Golden Horn. Near the end of the street we see on the right a pretty little Byzantine church converted into a mosque known as Atik Mustafa Pa
ş
a Camii. This has been identified tentatively as the Church of SS. Peter and Mark.

The building appears to be the only cross-domed Byzantine church of the ninth century remaining in the city. The wooden porch, the dome and its drum, and probably some of the roofs and many of the windows are Turkish restorations. For the rest, the church preserves its original plan which is simple and, for a Byzantine structure, regular. A dome, doubtless originally on a fairly high drum with windows, covers the centre of the cross; the arms are barrel-vaulted, as are the four small rooms beyond the dome piers which fill up the corners of the cross; they are entered through high, narrow arches. The three apses, semicircular within, have three faces on the exterior. It must have been an attractive little church and it still has a decayed charm.