Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites
John Stuart Mill · en
The next gate, Daoud Pasha Kapoussi, immediately to the west of Vlanga
Bostan, is the Gate of St. Æmilianus (ἡ Πόρτα τοῦ ἁγίου
Αἰμιλιανοῦ),[978] named so after a church of that dedication in the
vicinity. It is identified by its situation. On the one hand, the Gate
of St. Æmilianus was the westernmost entrance in the line of the
Constantinian Walls beside the Sea of Marmora.[979] It must, therefore,
have been a gate to the west of the old harbour at Vlanga Bostan, which,
under the name of the Harbour of Eleutherius, stood within the city of
Constantine.[980] On the other hand, it cannot have been a gate further
west than Daoud Pasha Kapoussi, for the two gates which pierce the city
wall in that direction can be identified with other gates, and were,
moreover, beyond the original bounds of Constantinople. Near the Gate of
St. Æmilianus stood the Church of St. Mary Rhabdou, venerated as the
shrine in which the rod of Moses was kept.[981]
The next gate retains its old name, Gate of Psamathia (Πόρτα τοῦ
Ψαμαθᾶ),[982] derived from the ancient quarter Psamathia (τοῦ Ψαμαθᾶ).
The name alludes to the sand thrown up on the beach here, as at Koum
Kapoussi (the Sand Gate).
Narli Kapoussi (the Pomegranate Gate), the succeeding entrance,
accommodated the quarter around the celebrated Church and Monastery of
St. John the Baptist, known as the Studion, because founded, in 463, by
Studius, a patrician from Rome. The gate is never mentioned by name, but
is clearly referred to by Constantine Porphyrogenitus[983] in his
account of the Imperial visit paid, annually, to the Studion on the 29th
of August, in commemoration of the martyrdom of the Baptist. On that
occasion it was usual for the emperor to come from the Great Palace by
water, in his state barge, and to land at this gate, where he was
received by the abbot and monks of the monastery, and conducted to the
services of the day.
On the cliff outside the gate is an Armenian Chapel of St. John the
Baptist, which Dr. Paspates[984] thinks belonged originally to the
Studion.
The excavations made in laying out the public garden beside the city
walls west of the Gas Works at Yedi Koulè, brought to light
substructures of an ancient edifice, in the construction of which bricks
stamped with the monogram of Basil I. and with a portion of the name
Diomed were employed. The ruins marked, undoubtedly, the site of the
Church and Monastery of St. Diomed, upon whose steps Basil flung himself
to sleep the evening he entered the city, a poor homeless adventurer
from Macedonia, in search of fortune. The kindness shown to the stranger
by the abbot of the House was never forgotten; and when Basil reached
the throne he rebuilt the church and the monastery on a more extensive
scale, and enriched them with ample endowments.[985] The large number of
pillars strewn upon the adjoining beach belonged, probably, to the
church.