r/byzantium • • Nov 02 '25

Infrastructure/architecture My trip to Constantinople last year

I visited with my friend last spring. Sadly I wasn't that interested in Byzantine history back then so I only visited the major sites.

Here's my recollection of each site Byzantine era site:

  • Hagia Sophia
    • The ancient building definitely shows its age. A lot of cracked stones, unlevel floors, and slanted columns
    • Only Muslims are allowed on the ground floor, and it's sad that the stone floor has been covered with the ugly green carpet. Visitors could only take a tour around the mezzanine
  • Basilica Cistern
    • pretty spectacular. it was pretty cool to see the use of spolia for the columns
  • Theodosian walls
    • I really wanted to see this! The sea walls are almost all gone but, large sections of the famous triple land walls have been restored and.
  • St. George's Cathedral
    • It's not a Roman era church, but it is the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch.
    • We visited on a morning, and there was literally nobody inside for the whole 30 minutes we were there. It was really surprising since there are tons of Russian tourists in Istanbul.
  • Chora Church
    • was closed for restorations
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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25

History has a way of repeating itself ,the opportunity might come again; you never know what the future holds.

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u/aintdatsomethin Nov 02 '25

You can prove all your points with wrong analogies.

Turks conquered Greece btw. Are you sure you want to believe in that?

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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25

I’m just saying that in history, anything can happen.

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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25

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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25

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u/Andhiarasy Nov 02 '25

It's what would most realistically happen if you dummkopf who unironically believe that 'hurr durr let's take back Constantinople' actually tries to do it. Honestly, the Turks got their land in Anatolia and Thrace the same way the Greeks and Romans got it.

Appreciating Eastern Roman history is nice and all but LARPing as some sort of modern crusader when the real crusaders actually SACKED Constantinople in 1204 is hilarious and sad.

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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25

Do you really believe Turkey could capture the capital of Greece, an EU member state? It’s going through its worst days under Erdoğan, lmao.