Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites
John Stuart Mill · en
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),[718] 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.[719]
This identification rests upon the fact that while Pachymeres[720]
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.[721] 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.[722] 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.[723]
The next gate, Djubali Kapoussi, must be the entrance styled Porta Puteæ
by Pusculus,[724] and Porta del Pozzo by Zorzo Dolfin;[725] 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.”[726]