ISTANBUL : MOST INSPIRING CITY IN THE WORLD

Located in the center of the Old World, Istanbul is one of the world's great cities famous for its historical monuments and magnificent scenic beauties.It has been the capital of three great empires, the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and for more than 1,600 years over 120 emperors and sultans ruled the world from here. Therefore its name has been changed many times throughout ages.

Byzantium is the first known name of the city. When Roman emperor Constantine I (Constantine the Great) made the city the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire , he conferred on it the name Nova Roma ("New Rome"). Constantinople ("City of Constantine") was the name widely known. It remained the principal official name of the city throughout the Byzantine period, and the most common name used for it in the West until the early 20th century.

As well as being the centre of an imperial Roman dynasty, the unique position of Constantinople at the centre of two continents, Asia and Europa, made the city a magnet for international commerce, culture and diplomacy. The strategic position of the city at the intersection of sea and land routes and the importance of its perfect climate rendered Constantinaple an attractive city.

With Roman Empire's dividing into two, the city was called Byzantine Empire.In the last decades of the Byzantine Empire, the city was vulnerable to any attack them vulnerable to attack because the Byzantine state became increasingly isolated and financially bankrupt.So following a siege of fifty-three days in 1453, the city was captured by the Turks. The large caliber cannons of Sultan Mehmet, the Conqueror, used for the first time in history, were one of the factors that enabled the Turks to penetrate the city walls of Istanbul.It was a period of great artistic and architectural achievements. The famous architect Sinan designed many mosques and other grand buildings in the city. The Imperial Topkapi Palace and many other palaces were built during Ottoman domination.
At the end of World War I the Ottoman Empire was broken up.The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Architecture

Ancient Greek and Roman monuments

The city has many architecturally significant entities like historical mosques, churches, palaces, castles and towers to visit in the city.One of these cultural heritages is the famous Maiden's (Leander's) Tower, originally built by the ancient Athenian in 408 BC and rebuilt by the Ottoman Turks, most significantly in 1509 and 1763.[24] The most recent facelift was made in 1998.

The other one of the most important monuments of Roman architecture in the city is the Column of Constantine,Cemberlitas which was erected in 330 by Constantine the Great for marking the declaration of the new capital city of the Roman Empire. The Valens Aqueduct, the Column of the Goths at the Seraglio Point, the Milion which served for calculating the distances between Constantinople and other cities of the Roman Empire, and the Hippodrome of Constantinople which was built following the model of the Circus Maximus in Rome are the other important historical values.

Byzantine monuments

The first of the Byzantine monuments in Istanbul is the Walls of Constantinople which encircled the city for years. The greatest part of these walls is still standing today. It was base of these walls that the city was able to withstand the siege of the Avar, the Arabs, the Bulgarians, the Sassanids, the Russian and the Ottoman armies.

The city walls had 55 gates, the largest of which was the Porta Aurea (Golden Gate), the ceremonial entrance gate used by the Emperors. Unlike the city walls which were built of brick and limestone, the Porta Aurea was built of large clean-cut white marble blocks in order to distinguish it from the rest. The doors of the Porta Aurea were made of gold, hence the name, which means "Golden Gate" in Latin.In 1458 the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II built the Yedikule ("Seven Towers") Castle to defend the Porta Aurea and still stands as a part of the pentagon-shaped layout of the castle walls. The Column of Marcian (Kıztaşı) erected by Marcianus who reigned between 450 and 457 dates from the same period as the triple land walls of Theodosius II.

But the church of Hagia Sophia, built as the new Cathedral of Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian and converted to a mosque by Ottomans, is the most astonishing architectural structure in Istanbul.After serving two different religions with the same god, 916 years as a church and 477 years as a mosque, Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum on Ataturk's orders. Between 1930 and 1935 the whitewash on the walls was cleaned to reveal mosaics, which are among the most important examples of Byzantine art.
Also in this period, the Genoese Podestà of Galata, Montano de Marinis, built the Palazzo del Comune (1314), a copy of the San Giorgio Palace in Genoa, which still stands in ruins on the back streets of Bankalar Caddesi in Galata, together with its adjacent buildings and numerous Genoese houses from the early 1300s. The Genoese also built the Galata Tower, which they named as Christea Turris (Tower of Christ), at the highest point of the citadel of Galata, in 1348.

Ottoman monuments

The Ottoman Turks built the Anadoluhisarı on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in 1394, and the Rumelihisarı at the opposite (European) shore, in 1452, a year before the conquest of Constantinople. The main purpose of these castles, armed with the long range Balyemez (Faule Metze) cannons, was to block the sea traffic of the Bosphorus and prevent the support ships from the Genoese colonies on the Black Sea ports, such as Caffa, Sinop, and Amasra, from reaching Constantinople and helping the Byzantines during the Turkish siege of the city.

Following the Ottoman conquest of the city, Sultan Mehmed II initiated a wide scale reconstruction plan, which included the construction of grand buildings such as the Eyüp Sultan Mosque, Fatih Mosque, Topkapı Palace, The Grand Bazaar and the Yedikule (Seven Towers) Castle which guarded the main entrance gate of the city, the Porta Aurea (Golden Gate). In the centuries following Mehmed II, many new important buildings, such as the Süleymaniye Mosque, Sultanahmet Mosque, Yeni Mosque and numerous others were constructed.

Traditionally, Ottoman buildings were built of ornate wood. Only "state buildings" such as palaces and mosques were built of stone. Starting from the 18th and 19th centuries, wood was gradually replaced with stone as the primary building material, while traditional Ottoman architectural styles were replaced with European architectural styles, particularly following the Tanzimat movement which effectively started Turkey's Europeanization process in 1839. But even before the Tanzimat period, European styles began to appear in the city, such as the Baroque style interiors of the Aynalıkavak Palace (1677-1679) and Nuruosmaniye Mosque (1748-1755, the first Baroque style mosque in the city, also famous for its Baroque fountain), and the 18th century Baroque additions to the Harem section of Topkapı Palace.

Bu haber 19/05/2010 tarihinde eklenmiştir.