Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

SQUARE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Hooped Column; Divan Yolu Caddesi, Çemberlitaş; j Çemberlitaş) Erected by order of the Emperor Constantine to celebrate the dedication of New Rome (Constantinople) 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 Çemberlitaş tram stop, it once stood in the grand Forum of Constantine and was topped by a statue of the great emperor himself in the guise of Apollo. The column was damaged by an earthquake in 416 and iron bands were secured around it to ensure that it remained upright ( cemberlitaş means ‘hooped stone’). The column lost its crowning statue of Constantine in 1106 and was damaged in the 1779 fire that ravaged the nearby Grand Bazaar. It has recently been restored. BEYAZIT SQUARE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Beyazıt Meydanı, Hürriyet – Freedom – Meydanı; j Beyazıt-Kapalı Çarşı) In Byzantine times, this public square was called the Forum of Theodosius. Today it’s home to street vendors, students from the adjoining İstanbul University and plenty of pigeons. The main building here is the Beyazıt Mosque, 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 kitchen) and kervansaray (caravanserai) complex now functioning as the magnificent Beyazıt State Library; and a disused double hamam. After the Conquest, Mehmet the Conqueror built his first palace here, a wooden structure called the Eski Sarayı (Old Seraglio). After Topkapı was built, the Eski Sarayı became home to women when they were pensioned out of the main palace – this was where valide sultans (mothers of the reigning sultans) came when their sultan sons died and they lost their powerful position as head of the harem. The original building was demolished in the 19th century to make way for a grandiose Ministry of War complex designed by Auguste Bourgeois; this now houses the university. The 85m-tall Beyazıt Tower in its grounds sits on top of one of the seven hills on which Constantine the Great built the city, following the model of