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Constantinople is now called what country. History and ethnology

People have birthdays, and cities also have birthdays. There are cities where we know exactly the day the first building or fortress wall was laid. And there are those cities about which we do not know, and we use only the first chronicle mention. This is the case with most cities: they first heard a mention somewhere, and consider this the only appearance in the historical annals.

But we know for sure that on May 11, 330 from the Nativity of Christ, Constantinople, the city of Constantine, was founded. Tsar Constantine, who became the first Christian emperor, himself was baptized only before his death. However, with the Edict of Milan he stopped the persecution of Christians. Subsequently, he headed the first Ecumenical Council.

Constantine founded a new city in honor of his name. As it is written, having named their names on the lands. Alexander built Alexandria around the world, and Constantine created Constantinople.

What can we say about Konstantin, if we have all sorts of Kalinins, Zhdanovs, Stalingrads - there were an unlimited number of these cities. People were in a hurry to give their name to the subway, factories, ships, and so on. Constantine acted more humbly - he named only one city, the capital of the empire.

The Russians called this city Constantinople - the City of the Tsar, the Tsar's City, the Great City. Compared to Constantinople, all other cities were villages. Today's name Istanbul is a Turkified Greek expression “istinpolin”, translated “from the city”. That is, where are you coming from - from the city. This is how Istanbul appeared.

This is the City of Cities, the mother of all cities in the world. Not only Russian cities, as we call Kyiv. In Russia, in Rus', they have always treated this wonderful city with reverence and reverence - the city of monasteries, book wisdom, the city of the Tsar and Basileus. Therefore, exactly a thousand years after the founding of Constantinople, the Russians founded the stone Church of the Savior on Bor on Borovitsky Hill, within the Moscow Kremlin. It was, however, destroyed by the Bolsheviks. But it was such a symbolic act - stretching a historical thread from Constantinople to the new Constantinople. From the Second Rome to the Third Rome. Although the Turks had not yet entered Constantinople, Mehmet the conqueror had not yet broken through the walls of Constantinople, neither external nor internal, they had not yet sung the adhan in Hagia Sophia - but the Russians already felt their continuity and connection. A thousand years later, they laid the foundations of Constantinople, the Church of the Savior on Bor, inside the Kremlin walls.

Our ancestors had this sense of connection and continuity with Byzantium, which was gradually leaving the historical arena.

So, I congratulate all Tsargrad residents - everyone working on our channel, as well as all people who have a strong ideological vertical, a connection with heavenly Jerusalem, on the day of remembrance of the founding of the city of Constantine, on the birthday of the city, which, in contrast to the old Rome, became the foundation of the Byzantine Empire , for a long thousand-plus years. Which gave birth to Christian worship. And in general, whose influence on world history is difficult to overestimate. Every May 11, on the day of the city, in the bowels of present-day Istanbul, like fire under the ashes, the memory of Hagia Sophia and Saint Constantinople burns...

Νέα Ῥώμη , lat. Nova Roma) (part of the title of the patriarch), Constantinople, Constantinople (among the Slavs; translation of the Greek name “Royal City” - Βασιλεύουσα Πόλις - Vasilevosa Polis, city of Vasilevsa) and Istanbul. The name "Constantinople" is preserved in modern Greek, "Constantinople" - in South Slavic. In the 9th-12th centuries, the pompous name “Byzantium” (Greek. Βυζαντίς ) . The city was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930 as part of Atatürk's reforms.

Story

Constantine the Great (306-337)

Subsequently, the city grew and developed so rapidly that half a century later, during the reign of Emperor Theodosius, new city walls were erected. The new walls of the city, which have survived to this day, already enclosed seven hills - the same number as in Rome.

Divided Empire (395-527)

After the brutal suppression of the rebellion, Justinian rebuilt the capital, attracting the best architects of his time. New buildings, temples and palaces are being built, the central streets of the new city are decorated with colonnades. A special place is occupied by the construction of Hagia Sophia, which became the largest temple in the Christian world and remained so for more than a thousand years - until the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The “Golden Age” was not cloudless: in 544, the Justinian Plague claimed the lives of 40% of the city’s population.

The city grows quickly and becomes first the business center of the then world, and soon the largest city in the world. They even started calling him simply City [ ] . At its height, the city's area was 30 thousand hectares and its population hundreds of thousands, about ten times the typical size of Europe's largest cities.

The first mentions of a Turkish place name Istanbul ( - Istanbul, local pronunciation ɯsˈtambul- İstanbul) appear in Arabic and then Turkic sources of the 10th century and come from (Greek. εἰς τὴν Πόλιν ), “is tin polin” - “to the city” or “to the city” - is an indirect Greek name for Constantinople.

Sieges and decline

As a result of disagreements between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Christian Church was divided in the city, and Constantinople became an Orthodox center.

Since the empire was no longer nearly as large as it had been in the time of Justinian or Heraclius, there were no other cities comparable to Constantinople. At this time, Constantinople played a fundamental role in all areas of Byzantine life. Since 1071, when the invasion of the Seljuk Turks began, the empire, and with it the City, again plunged into darkness.

During the reign of the Komnenos dynasty (-), Constantinople experienced its last heyday - although not the same as under Justinian and the Macedonian dynasty. The city center moves west towards the city walls, into the current districts of Fatih and Zeyrek. New churches and a new imperial palace (Blachernae Palace) are being built.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Genoese and Venetians took over commercial hegemony and settled in Galata.

A fall

Constantinople became the capital of a new strong state - the Ottoman Empire.

Constantinople

The word "Tsargrad" is now an archaic term in Russian. However, it is still used in the Bulgarian language, especially in a historical context. The main transport artery in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, is named after Tsarigradsko highway(“Tsarigrad road”); the road begins as the Tsar Liberator Boulevard and continues to the main highway leading southeast to Istanbul. Name Constantinople also preserved in such word groups as Tsarigrad bunch(“Royal grapes”, meaning “gooseberries”), dish Tsarigrad kuftenza(“small Tsarigrad kufta”) or statements like “You can even get to Tsarigrad by asking.” In the Slovenian language this name is still used and is often preferred to the official one. People also understand and sometimes use the name Carigrad in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Cards

Architecture

The urban space of Constantinople (“Queen of Cities”) was conceived as a reflection of the Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth. This sacred space is studied by hierotopy - a science at the intersection of history, theology, art history and other disciplines. The outlines of the urban planning program of New Rome can still be seen in the city, for example, marble columns (and their fragments) with decoration reminiscent of the "peacock's eye" in the former Forum of Theodosius (now Bayezid Square); on the side of Mesa (lat. Via Triumphalis, now Divanyolu); in the courtyard of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum (from the Taurus Forum); in an underground cistern of the 6th century. "Yeri Erebatan barn" as vault supports. The greyish marble was quarried and processed in the quarries of the island of Marmara in Propontis. The snow-marble columns of the cistern come from the remains of the temple of “Hera of Acre” and are not similar to any classical order: their design imitates the feather of the bird Hera and strongly taper towards the top.

The three main forums of the city: Constantine, Augustion And Feodosia(a replica of the Forum of Trojan in Rome) in ancient times were marked with the symbols of Hera, the heavenly queen of antiquity. In the first forum there was a huge bronze statue of Hera, possibly the work of the famous sculptor Lysippos (before 1204); in the forum of Theodosia the “star gate” was built - a triumphal arch of three spans and 16 pillars, decorated with the “eyes of Argus”.

In the Constantinople monastery of Chora (Kakhiriye-Jami), mosaic works of the Theotokos cycle, completed in 1316-1321, have been preserved.

Here are the ancient monuments of the City of Constantinople, many of which now lie in ruins, as can be seen in this Picture: let us note those buildings that still remain, especially the Central Temple of Hagia Sophia, the Palace of the Emperor Constantine and, in addition, another round Palace; Thus, this Emperor [Constantine] also erected another [palace] near the Temple of Hagia Sophia, which was of large size, but is now destroyed. Some landmarks of the Capital City of Constantinople. A Here in the convolutions is a Column, the stones of which are skillfully connected to each other, and its height is 24 fathoms B There is also a Column there, which is called the “Historical Column”: and it is called that because historical chronicles were created inside the column C Here is the area where the residence of the Patriarch of Constantinople is located, from where you can proceed to the nearby Balat region; and all this can be seen [on this plane] D Church of St. Luke the Evangelist E St. Peter's Church FEATHER. In Constantinople, as already mentioned, there is (the district of) Pera, or (as the Turks say) “Galata”, there is also a Wide Gulf that flows into the Sea, there are Turkish and also Jewish cemeteries, and outside the city there are everywhere other cemeteries, and all this can be seen from the depicted (tombstones) stones (on the plan) F Here is the region in the right corner, where the Sea connects with the Gulf, where the Turks allocated the Weissenburg (area) to the Greeks, and there is also a foundry (of guns) there currently.

Coins

Painting and mosaic

Notes

Georgacas, Demetrius John. The Names of Constantinople // Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association (English) Russian: journal. - The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1947. - Vol. 78. - P. 347-367. - DOI:10.2307/283503.
// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
The most ancient states of Eastern Europe. - M.: Nauka, 2003. - P. 136.
Levchenko M. V. History of Byzantium. - M.-L.: OGIZ, 1940. - P. 9.
Dil Sh. History of the Byzantine Empire. - M.: Gosinoizdat, 1948. - P. 19.
Kurbatov G. L. History of Byzantium. - M.: Higher School, 1984. - P. 7.
Serov V.V. On the problem of forming the capital status of Constantinople // Byzantine temporary book. - M.: Nauka, 2006. - T. 65 (90). - P. 37-59.
, With. 53.
, With. 477.
Sophrony Vrachanski. Life and suffering for sins Sophrony. Sofia 1987. Pp. 55 (Explanatory footnote to the autobiography of Sophrony Vrachansky)
Gerov was found. 1895-1904. Riverman in Bulgarian language. (record on tsar in the Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language by Naiden Gerova)
Simeonova, Margarita. Riverman on ezika na Vasil Levski. Sofia, IC "BAN", 2004 (recorded at tsar V Dictionary of the language of Margarita Simeonova Vasil Levsky)
Seznam tujih imen v slovenskem jeziku. Geodetska uprava Republike Slovenije. Ljubljana 2001. p. 18.
, With. thirty.
, With. 32.
, With. 32-33.

If you try to find Constantinople on a modern geographical map, you will fail. The thing is that since 1930 such a city has not existed. By decision of the new government of the Turkish Republic, founded in 1923, the city of Constantinople (the former capital of the Ottoman Empire) was renamed. Its modern name is Istanbul.

Why was Constantinople called Constantinople? The amazing history of the city dates back more than one millennium. During this period, it underwent many changes, having been the capital of three empires at once: Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. It is not surprising that he had to change names more than once. The very first name assigned to it in history is Byzantium. The modern name of Constantinople is Istanbul.

Constantinople was perceived by Russian people as the center of Orthodoxy. Soon after the adoption of Christianity in Russian culture, a systematic sacralization (imbuing with sacred meaning) of the image of Constantinople occurs.

It is the image of Constantinople in Russian folk tales that inspired the idea of a strange overseas country with its magic and all kinds of miracles.

Vladimir's marriage to a Byzantine princess led to the establishment of cultural and spiritual ties with Constantinople. Constantinople played an extremely positive role in the development of Russian society, as business and cultural contacts led to a leap in the development of icon painting, architecture, literature, art and social science.

By order of Vladimir, magnificent cathedrals were built in Kyiv, Polotsk and Novgorod, which are exact copies of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople.

At the main entrance to Vladimir and Kiev, golden gates were installed, created by analogy with the golden gates that opened during the solemn ceremonies of the meeting of the Byzantine emperors.

Etymological information

The etymology of the word “king” is interesting. It came from the name of the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar. The word “Caesar” became a mandatory part of the title of all rulers of the empire: both in the early and late periods of its existence. The use of the prefix “Caesar” symbolized the continuity of power that passed to the new emperor from the legendary Julius Caesar.

In Roman culture, the concepts of “king” and “Caesar” are not identical: in the early stages of the existence of the Roman state, the king was called the word “rex”, performed the duties of the high priest, justice of the peace and leader of the army. He was not endowed with unlimited power and most often represented the interests of the community that chose him as its leader.

End of the Byzantine Empire

On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror took Constantinople after a 53-day siege. The last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, having defended a prayer service in the St. Sophia Cathedral, fought valiantly in the ranks of the city’s defenders and died in battle.

The capture of Constantinople meant the end of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman state and was initially called Constantine, and then was renamed Istanbul.

In Europe and Russia the city is called Istanbul, which is a distorted form of the Turkish name.

It was the capital of the Christian empire - the heir of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. Throughout the Middle Ages, Constantinople was the largest and richest city in Europe.

Story

Constantine the Great (306-337)

In 324, after victories in internecine wars, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, launched a state that had existed since the 7th century BC. e. As a Greek colony, the city of Byzantium carried out major construction - the hippodrome was rebuilt, new palaces were built, a huge Church of the Apostles was erected, fortress walls were built, works of art were brought to the city from all over the empire. As a result of large-scale construction, the city is expanding several times, and population growth is significantly increasing due to migration from European and Asian provinces.

Divided Empire (395-527)

The “Golden Age” was not cloudless: in 544, the Justinian Plague claimed the lives of 40% of the city’s population.

The city grows quickly and becomes first the business center of the then world, and soon the largest city in the world. They even started calling him simply City.

Sieges and decline

In the period from 666 to 950, the city was subjected to repeated sieges by Arabs and Rus.

During the reign of Emperor Leo the Isaurian in -741, a period of iconoclasm began, which would last until the middle of the 9th century, many frescoes and mosaics on religious themes were destroyed.

Prosperity under the Macedonians and Komnenians

The second greatest flowering of Byzantium, and with it Constantinople, began in the 9th century with the coming to power of the Macedonian dynasty (-). Then, simultaneously with major military victories over the main enemies - the Bulgarians (Vasily II even bore the nickname Bulgarian Slayer) and the Arabs, Greek-speaking culture flourished: science (the Constantinople High School was reformed - a kind of first European university, founded by Theodosius II in 425), painting (mainly frescoes and icons), literature (mainly hagiography and chronicles). Missionary activity is intensifying, mainly among the Slavs, as exemplified by the activities of Cyril and Methodius.

As a result of disagreements between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Christian Church was divided in the city, and Constantinople became an Orthodox center.

During the reign of the Komnenos dynasty (-), Constantinople experienced its last heyday - although not the same as under Justinian and the Macedonian dynasty. The city center shifts west towards the city walls, into the current districts of Fatih and Zeyrek. New churches and a new imperial palace (Blachernae Palace) are being built.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Genoese and Venetians took over commercial hegemony and settled in Galata.

A fall

Constantinople became the capital of a new strong state - the Ottoman Empire.



Volkhov-Volga trade route

Dvina - Dnieper trade route

Other places

Excerpt characterizing Constantinople

It was not difficult to say “tomorrow” and maintain a tone of decency; but to come home alone, to see your sisters, brother, mother, father, to confess and ask for money to which you have no right after your word of honor was given.
We weren't sleeping at home yet. The youth of the Rostov house, having returned from the theater, having had dinner, sat at the clavichord. As soon as Nikolai entered the hall, he was overwhelmed by that loving, poetic atmosphere that reigned in their house that winter and which now, after Dolokhov’s proposal and Iogel’s ball, seemed to thicken even more, like the air before a thunderstorm, over Sonya and Natasha. Sonya and Natasha, in the blue dresses they wore at the theater, pretty and knowing it, happy, smiling, stood at the clavichord. Vera and Shinshin were playing chess in the living room. The old countess, waiting for her son and husband, was playing solitaire with an old noblewoman who lived in their house. Denisov, with shining eyes and tousled hair, sat with his leg thrown back at the clavichord, clapping them with his short fingers, striking chords, and rolling his eyes, in his small, hoarse but faithful voice, sang the poem he had composed, “The Sorceress,” to which he was trying to find music.
Sorceress, tell me what power
Draws me to abandoned strings;
What fire have you planted in your heart,
What delight flowed through my fingers!
He sang in a passionate voice, shining at the frightened and happy Natasha with his agate, black eyes.
- Wonderful! Great! – Natasha shouted. “Another verse,” she said, not noticing Nikolai.
“They have everything the same,” thought Nikolai, looking into the living room, where he saw Vera and his mother with the old woman.
- A! Here comes Nikolenka! – Natasha ran up to him.
- Is daddy at home? - he asked.
– I’m so glad you came! – Natasha said without answering, “we’re having so much fun.” Vasily Dmitrich remains for me one more day, you know?
“No, dad hasn’t come yet,” said Sonya.
- Coco, you have arrived, come to me, my friend! - said the countess's voice from the living room. Nikolai approached his mother, kissed her hand and, silently sitting down at her table, began to look at her hands, laying out the cards. Laughter and cheerful voices were still heard from the hall, persuading Natasha.
“Well, okay, okay,” Denisov shouted, “now there’s no point in making excuses, barcarolla is behind you, I beg you.”
The Countess looked back at her silent son.
- What happened to you? – Nikolai’s mother asked.
“Oh, nothing,” he said, as if he was already tired of this same question.
- Will daddy arrive soon?
- I think.
“Everything is the same for them. They don't know anything! Where should I go?” thought Nikolai and went back to the hall where the clavichord stood.
Sonya sat at the clavichord and played the prelude of the barcarolle that Denisov especially loved. Natasha was going to sing. Denisov looked at her with delighted eyes.
Nikolai began to walk back and forth around the room.
“And now you want to make her sing? – what can she sing? And there’s nothing fun here,” thought Nikolai.
Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
“My God, I am lost, I am a dishonest person. A bullet in the forehead, the only thing left to do is not sing, he thought. Leave? but where? anyway, let them sing!”
Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, glanced at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their gaze.
“Nikolenka, what’s wrong with you?” – asked Sonya’s gaze fixed on him. She immediately saw that something had happened to him.
Nikolai turned away from her. Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed her brother’s condition. She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself. No, I’m having too much fun now to spoil my fun by sympathizing with someone else’s grief, she felt, and said to herself:
“No, I’m rightly mistaken, he should be as cheerful as I am.” Well, Sonya,” she said and went out to the very middle of the hall, where, in her opinion, the resonance was best. Raising her head, lowering her lifelessly hanging hands, as dancers do, Natasha, energetically shifting from heel to tiptoe, walked through the middle of the room and stopped.
"Here I am!" as if she was speaking in response to the enthusiastic gaze of Denisov, who was watching her.
“And why is she happy! - Nikolai thought, looking at his sister. And how isn’t she bored and ashamed!” Natasha hit the first note, her throat expanded, her chest straightened, her eyes took on a serious expression. She was not thinking about anyone or anything at that moment, and sounds flowed from her folded mouth into a smile, those sounds that anyone can make at the same intervals and at the same intervals, but which a thousand times leave you cold, in the thousand and first times they make you shudder and cry.
This winter Natasha began to sing seriously for the first time, especially because Denisov admired her singing. She no longer sang like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that was in her before; but she still did not sing well, as all the expert judges who listened to her said. “Not processed, but a wonderful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. At the same time, when this raw voice sounded with irregular aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the expert judges did not say anything, and only enjoyed this raw voice and only wanted to hear it again. In her voice there was that virginal pristineness, that ignorance of her own strengths and that still unprocessed velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.
“What is this? - Nikolai thought, hearing her voice and opening his eyes wide. -What happened to her? How does she sing these days? - he thought. And suddenly the whole world focused for him, waiting for the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos: “Oh mio crudele affetto... [Oh my cruel love...] One, two, three... one, two... three... one... Oh mio crudele affetto... One, two, three... one. Eh, our life is stupid! - Nikolai thought. All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all this is nonsense... but here it is real... Hey, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother!... how will she take this si? I took it! God bless!" - and he, without noticing that he was singing, in order to strengthen this si, took the second to the third of a high note. "My God! how good! Did I really take it? how happy!” he thought.
ABOUT! how this third trembled, and how something better that was in Rostov’s soul was touched. And this was something independent of everything in the world, and above everything in the world. What kind of losses are there, and the Dolokhovs, and honestly!... It’s all nonsense! You can kill, steal and still be happy...

Rostov has not experienced such pleasure from music for a long time as on this day. But as soon as Natasha finished her barcarolle, reality came back to him again. He left without saying anything and went downstairs to his room. A quarter of an hour later the old count, cheerful and satisfied, arrived from the club. Nikolai, hearing his arrival, went to him.
- Well, did you have fun? - said Ilya Andreich, smiling joyfully and proudly at his son. Nikolai wanted to say “yes,” but he couldn’t: he almost burst into tears. The Count was lighting his pipe and did not notice his son’s condition.
“Oh, inevitably!” - Nikolai thought for the first and last time. And suddenly, in the most casual tone, such that he seemed disgusted to himself, as if he was asking the carriage to go to the city, he told his father.
- Dad, I came to you for business. I forgot about it. I need money.
“That’s it,” said the father, who was in a particularly cheerful spirit. - I told you that it won’t be enough. Is it a lot?
“A lot,” Nikolai said, blushing and with a stupid, careless smile, which for a long time later he could not forgive himself. – I lost a little, that is, a lot, even a lot, 43 thousand.
- What? Who?... You're kidding! - shouted the count, suddenly turning apoplectic red in the neck and back of his head, like old people blush.
“I promised to pay tomorrow,” said Nikolai.
“Well!...” said the old count, spreading his arms and sank helplessly onto the sofa.
- What to do! Who hasn't this happened to? - said the son in a cheeky, bold tone, while in his soul he considered himself a scoundrel, a scoundrel who could not atone for his crime with his whole life. He would have liked to kiss his father's hands, on his knees to ask for his forgiveness, but he said in a careless and even rude tone that this happens to everyone.
Count Ilya Andreich lowered his eyes when he heard these words from his son and hurried, looking for something.
“Yes, yes,” he said, “it’s difficult, I’m afraid, it’s difficult to get... never happened to anyone!” yes, who hasn’t happened to... - And the count glanced briefly into his son’s face and walked out of the room... Nikolai was preparing to fight back, but he never expected this.
- Daddy! pa... hemp! - he shouted after him, sobbing; excuse me! “And, grabbing his father’s hand, he pressed his lips to it and began to cry.

While the father was explaining to his son, an equally important explanation was taking place between the mother and daughter. Natasha ran to her mother excitedly.
- Mom!... Mom!... he did it to me...
- What did you do?
- I did, I proposed. Mother! Mother! - she shouted. The Countess could not believe her ears. Denisov proposed. To whom? This tiny girl Natasha, who had recently been playing with dolls and was now taking lessons.

Among the many cities of medieval Europe, the capital occupied a special place. Even at a time of relative decline, at the beginning of the 7th century, population of Constantinople numbered 375 thousand - much more than in any other city in the Christian world. Later this number only increased. The city itself grew. Even centuries later, the cities of the Latin West seemed like miserable villages compared to the Byzantine capital. The Latin crusaders were amazed at its beauty and size, as well as its wealth. In Rus', Constantinople was called Constantinople, which can be interpreted both as the Tsar’s city and as the Tsar-city.

In 330, the Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital to the city of Byzantium and gave it his name. In just a few decades, Constantinople transformed from an ordinary provincial center into the largest city of the empire. He was ahead of all the cities of the West, including Rome and the capitals of the Middle East - Antioch and Alexandria. People from all over the Roman world flocked to Constantinople, attracted by its unprecedented wealth and glory. In this city, standing on a cape between the Seas of Marmara and the Black Sea, on the very border of Europe and Asia, trade routes from different parts of the world intersected. For almost the entire Middle Ages, Constantinople remained the most important center of world trade. Here goods and people from Western Europe and India and Rus', Arab countries and Scandinavia met. Already in the 11th century. foreigners - merchants, mercenaries - populated entire city blocks.

Emperor Justinian I did a lot to improve the capital. Under this ruler, the Eastern Empire expanded significantly. The greatest creations of Byzantine architecture created then were then updated over the centuries. Justinian's architects erected the Great Imperial Palace, towering above the sea, which served many generations of emperors. The dome of Hagia Sophia, the most glorious temple of the Orthodox world, rose above the city as a grandiose monument to the union between the empire and the Church. It was the service in Sofia, according to legend, that shocked the world in the 10th century. Russian ambassadors sent by Prince Vladimir to “test” the Roman faith. “And we could not understand,” they told the prince, “we are in heaven or on earth...”

The wealth and luxury of the capital of the empire always attracted conquerors. In 626, the combined forces of the Avars and Persians tried to take the city, in 717 - the Arabs, in 860 - the Rus. But for many centuries the Second Rome did not see an enemy within its walls. Several fortification belts reliably protected him. Even during the numerous civil wars that shook the empire, the city itself only opened its gates to the victors. Only in 1204 did yesterday’s allies, the crusaders, manage to capture the capital. This began the decline of Constantinople, which ended with the fall of the city in 1453, already under the onslaught of the Turks. Ironically, the last emperor bore the same name as the founder of the capital - Constantine.

Under the name Istanbul, the city became the capital of the Muslim Ottoman Empire. It remained there until the fall of the sultans in 1924. The Ottomans decided not to destroy the city. They moved into the imperial palaces, and the Hagia Sophia was rebuilt into the greatest mosque of the state, retaining its former name - Hagia Sophia (which means “holy”).

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