Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
visit the nearby shrine of Blachernae. Over the centuries the Palace
of Blachernae was rebuilt and enlarged several times, particularly
during the reign of the Comneni dynasty during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. From that time on Blachernae became the favourite
residence of the imperial family, gradually supplanting the Great Palace
on the First Hill. The splendours and magnificence of the Palace of
Blachernae particularly impressed the Crusaders, some of whom have
left glowing accounts of it. This may have heightened their desire to
take the city for themselves. After the restoration of the Empire in
1261 the Great Palace on the Marmara was abandoned altogether,
and for the remainder of the Byzantine period the imperial family
lived exclusively at Blachernae; they were still in residence there when
the city fell to the Turks on 29 May 1453.
The two towers which we see just behind Ivaz Efendi Camii are
a part of the palace. The one to the left is traditionally called the
Tower of Isaac Angelus and that to the right the Prison of Anemas,
although there are scholars who would identify the latter with one of
the towers closer to the Golden Horn. The Prison of Anemas appears
frequently in the history of the last centuries of Byzantium. A half-
dozen emperors were at one time or another imprisoned, tortured
and mutilated in this tower, and two of them were murdered there.
The Tower of Isaac Angelus is so-called because it was most probably
built by that emperor, in about 1188, perhaps as a private apartment
with its upper level serving as a belvedere. Certainly the upper storey
of the tower, on a level with the terrace, commands a superb view
of the Golden Horn and of the surrounding countryside; notice
outside the windows the shafts of columns which once supported a
balcony. Seven years after he completed his tower, Isaac Angelus was
incarcerated in the Prison of Anemas and blinded - the traditional
Byzantine disfiguration of deposed emperors. He was restored briefly
in 1213, ruling as co-emperor with his son, Alexius IV, but the two
were deposed early in the following year. Isaac and Alexius were then
confined to the Prison of Anemas and were strangled there shortly
afterwards.
A modern concrete stairway in the terrace leads down to the
substructures of the palace. These are quite impressive, but to visit
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