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Constantinople's last
extant Byzantine imperial
palace, 5 km (3 miles) northwest
of Sultanahmet in
the Byzantine
City Walls (map), is
just a shell, but it gives a fine
idea of what the emperor's residence
might have looked like in Byzantine
times.
Built into the city
walls only a short walk
from the Kariye
Museum (Chora Church),
this Palace of Constantine
Porphyrogenetus (called
in Turkish Tekfur Sarayı,
'Emperor's Palace') probably adjoined
the larger Blachernae Palace.
It was constructed during the late
1200s or early 1300s for Emperor
Constantine Porphyrogenetus ('Born
to the Purple,' ie, to wear the
color reserved for the emperor).
After the Ottoman conquest (1453)
it served as part of the sultan's menagerie,
later as a brothel, then as a pottery
workshop and a poorhouse before being
abandoned in the later 1700s.
It was closed for extensive restorations
in 2006 and is not yet open, though
you can get a glimpse from the outside.
Visit the palace when you visit the Kariye
Museum, the City
Walls, Yedikule (Fortress
of the Seven Towers), the Eyüp
Sultan mosque and Pierre
Loti café on an
Istanbul
city tour. More...
Kariye
Museum (Chora Church)
City
Walls
Mihrimah Sultan Mosque
Eyüp Sultan Mosque
Istanbul
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Imagine
it filled with Byzantine courtiers,
or elephants, or pots,
or poor people, or (ahem) prostitutes.
At various times it was!
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