Aspar cistern

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Map of the Byzantine Constantinople

The Aspar Cistern ( Greek ἡ τοῦ Ἂσπαρος κινστέρνη ; Turkish Aspar Sarnıcı ) or Large Cistern ( Greek μεγίστη κινστέρνη ) was an open cistern in the Byzantine Constantinople . In Turkish the cistern is also called Sultan Selim Çukurbostanı ( Eng . Sunken Garden of Sultan Selim ).

location

The cistern is located on a hill in the Fener district of Istanbul's Fatih district between Sultan Selim Caddesi and Yavuz Selim Caddesi streets . To the north is the Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque . The structure is located on the northeast slope of the fifth hill in Region IV of Constantinople with a view of the Golden Horn .

history

Aspar and his eldest son Ardabur on the Missorium des Aspar (around 434)

Construction of the cistern began in 459 under the Byzantine emperor Markian . It was built by the alanisch-born General Aspar and his sons Ardabur and the Caesars Patricius continued.

After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 , the French explorer Pierre Gilles reported that the cistern was empty by 1540. However, the reservoir could no longer have been used in late Byzantine times, because at that time its name was Xerokepion ( Greek Ξηροκήπιον , dry garden ). According to tradition, the cistern was directly connected to Hagia Sophia , which is about three kilometers to the south-east, through a passage that is located in the middle of the south-east side and was closed around the middle of the 19th century.

Under the reign of Suleyman I , the small Hatip Muslihiddin mosque was built in the reservoir. During the Ottoman Empire, as the contemporary Turkish name Çukurbostan ( sunken garden ) suggests, the cistern was used as a vegetable garden. Then a small housing estate was built here, surrounded by fruit trees and gardens. In 2004, with the exception of the mosque, the settlement was demolished to allow the construction of a parking lot. Today, next to the mosque and a parking lot, there is a park and sports fields.

ID

According to the Chronicon Paschale from the 7th century, the building was “near the old city wall”, which was near the Theodosian wall . For a long time, previous authors were unable to confirm the identity of the cistern. Sometimes it was considered the cistern of the bonus, then the cistern of Arcadius and finally the cistern of Petrion. Identification has only recently been secured.

As with other cisterns in the city, the Aspar cistern was not identified until the middle of the 20th century. From Byzantine sources it is known that the reservoir was located near the Porphyrogennetos Palace , the Kaiouma and Chrysobalanton Monasteries, the Manuel Monastery , the Theotokos tá Koronės Monastery, and the Theodosia Monastery.

description

Look into the cistern; in the background you can see the mighty walls of the former cistern (2013)

The almost square cistern is 152 meters long and has an area of ​​23,100 m². The walls are between 10 and 11 meters high. The capacity was between 230,000 and 250,000 m³ of water. The walls are on average 5.20 meters thick and partially preserved. The walls were erected using the Roman masonry technique opus listatum with alternating strips of 5 rows of bricks and 5 rows of blocks that clad the cast masonry . Remains of arches can be seen on the inner walls, which led to the assumption that the cistern could originally have been covered with vaults. The Pulcheria Cistern was on the southeast corner of the Aspar Cistern. A water tower was later built at the northwest corner of the cistern to regulate the hydraulic pressure. At the north-west corner a ramp leads down into the interior of the former cistern.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Pictorial dictionary on the topography of Istanbul: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul up to the beginning of the 17th century . Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 978-3-8030-1022-3 , p. 279
  2. ^ Tülay Ergül: A Byzantine Cistern near Istanbul . In: Archeology , Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 1974), pp. 42-47, here p. 44
  3. ^ A b c d Raymond Janin : Constantinople Byzantine . Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines, Paris 1964, p. 204
  4. ↑ a b c d Ernest Mamboury : The Tourists' Istanbul . Çituri Biraderler Basımevi, Istanbul 1953, p. 325
  5. ^ Semavi Eyice : Istanbul. Petite Guide a travers les Monuments Byzantins et Turcs . Istanbul Matbaası, Istanbul 1955, p. 62
  6. ^ A b John Freely, Ahmet S. Çakmak: Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul . Cambridge University Press, New York 2004, ISBN 9780521179058 , p. 55
  7. ↑ Feride Imrana Altun: İstanbul'un 100 Roma, Bizans eseri . Istanbul Buyukşehir Belediyesi Kültür A.Ş. Yayınları, Istanbul 2009, ISBN 978-9944-370-76-9 , p. 140
  8. ↑ Philipp Forchheimer, Josef Strzygowski: Byzantine water reservoir of Constantinople; Contributions to the history of Byzantine architecture and the topography of Constantinople . Printing and publishing of the Mechitharist Congregation in Vienna, Vienna 1893, p. 47 ( digitized version )
  9. ^ Tülay Ergül: A Byzantine Cistern near Istanbul . In: Archeology , Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 1974), p. 46
  10. ↑ Cistern of Aspar , The Byzantine Legacy, accessed May 9, 2019

Coordinates: 41 ° 1 ′ 33 ″  N , 28 ° 56 ′ 59 ″  E