Istanbul Guide

101

for centuries, it is currently undergoing a controversial restoration. The monastery was commissioned in 1118 by Empress Eirene (she features in a mosaic at Aya Sofya with her husband, Emperor John II Comnenus), who wanted to give succour to ‘poor, sick, and suffering souls’. Building works were completed after her death. The north and south churches, dedicated to Christ Pantokrator and the Archangel St Michael, were connected by an imperial chapel that was used as a mau soleum for the Komnenos and Palaiologos dynasties. After the Conquest, the church was con verted into a mosque named in honour of Molla Zeyrek, a well-known scholar who lived during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II. The cisterns were in use until the end of the 18th century and have recently been restored. Sadly, they are not open to the public. Until recently, the church building was included on the World Monument Fund’s (WMF) list of the world’s 100 most endan gered cultural heritage sites. It is now un dergoing an excruciatingly slow restoration that was instigated and initially funded by the WMF, but has since been tended out to private contractors, who are applying lib eral amounts of ugly pink concrete to the stone walls. The interior of the northern section of the church has been unsympa thetically (we would say incompetently) stabilised with ugly metal braces and deco rated with dreadful faux-marble painted walls. It is now functioning as a mosque. GALATA BRIDGE BRIDGE Map p242 (Galata Köprüsü; j Eminönü, Karaköy) To experience İ stanbul at its most magical, walk across the Galata Bridge at sunset. At this time, the historic Galata Tower is sur rounded by shrieking seagulls, the mosques atop the seven hills of the city are silhou etted against a soft red-pink sky and the evocative scent of apple tobacco wafts out of the nargile cafes under the bridge. During the day, the bridge carries a con stant flow of İ stanbullus crossing to and from Beyo ğ lu and Eminönü, a handful or two of hopeful anglers trailing their lines into the waters below and a constantly changing procession of street vendors hawking everything from fresh-baked sim its (sesame-encrusted bread rings) to Rolex rip-offs. Underneath, restaurants and cafes serve drinks and food all day and night.

Come here to enjoy a beer and nargile while watching the ferries making their way to and from the Eminönü and Karaköy ferry docks. The present, quite ugly bridge was built in 1992 to replace an iron structure dat ing from 1909 to 1912, which in turn had replaced two earlier structures. The iron bridge was famous for the ramshackle fish restaurants, teahouses and nargile joints that occupied the dark recesses beneath its roadway. However, it had a major flaw: it floated on pontoons that blocked the natu ral flow of water and kept the Golden Horn from flushing itself free of pollution. In the late 1980s, the municipality started to draw up plans to replace it with a new bridge that would allow the water to flow. A fire expe dited these plans in the early 1990s and the new bridge was built a short time after wards. The remains of the old, much-loved bridge were moved further up the Golden Horn near Hasköy. COLUMN OF CONSTANTINE MONUMENT Map p242 (Hooped Column; Divan Yolu Caddesi, Çemberlita ş ; j Çemberlita ş ) Erected by order of the Emperor Constantine to celebrate the dedication of New Rome (Constantino ple) as capital of the Roman Empire in 330, this column is one of the city’s most ancient monuments. Located in a pigeon-packed plaza next to the Çemberlita ş tram stop, it once stood in the grand Forum of Constan tine and was topped by a statue of the great emperor himself in the guise of Apollo. The column was damaged by an earth quake in 416 and iron bands were secured around it to ensure that it remained upright ( cemberlita ş means ‘hooped stone’). The column lost its crowning statue of Constan tine in 1106 and was damaged in the 1779 fire that ravaged the nearby Grand Bazaar. It has recently been restored. BEYAZIT SQUARE SQUARE Map p242 (Beyaz ı t Meydan ı , Hürriyet – Freedom – Meydan ı ; j Beyaz ı t-Kapal ı Çar ş ı ) In Byzantine times, this public square was called the Forum of Theodosius. Today it’s home to street vendors, students from the adjoining İ stanbul University and plenty of pigeons. The main building here is the Beyaz ı t Mosque (p102), and there are also various buildings that originally formed part of its külliye . These include a medrese that now houses a Museum of Calligraphy (currently closed for restoration); an imaret (soup

BAZAAR DISTRICT SIGHTS