Italian School, early nineteenth century

Ascanio di Brazza Savorgnan;

Thence by descent

This panorama presents a rare and early view of Stambul or Turkish Constantinople from Christian Constantinople on the opposite bank of the Golden Horn. It dates from the early nineteenth century, before 1838 when the first bridge was built across the Bosphorus connecting the two parts of the city. This elevated view is taken from The Tower of Galata which was built by the Genoese as a look-out post from which city fires could be detected. The view from the tower, however, is not as extensive as illustrated in this painting. The artist has distorted the landscape in order to reveal the whole length of the Golden Horn and the banks on either side. As a result, the city is presented in all its architectural splendour and an impression is conveyed of its full scope and size.

Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman empire, was founded in 330 A.D. by Constantine the Great, from whom it derives its name. It was built on a site partly occupied by the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium. The city stands at the Southern extremity of the Bosphorus channel with the sea of Marmora to the South and consists of two distinct parts - Stambul or Constantinople proper and Christian Constantinople. The two are seperated by the Golden Horn, a creek about five miles long and half a mile wide at the entrance. Stambul or Turkish Constantinople lies at the southern side of the Golden Horn, and Christian Constantinople lies on the north side.

Within its walls the city rises on seven low hills crowned by mosques. In the present work four notable mosques are clearly delineated on the horizon of Stambul. From the left to the right of the composition are the mosques of Sultan Ahmed I (1610), Sultan Bayezid II (1497-1505), Sultan Suleiman (1550-1555) and Sultan Selim. The mosque of Sultan Ahmed I is located in the Hippodrome and is distinguished by six minarets instead of the usual four. The mosques of Sultan Suleiman and Sultan Selim were built in the sixteenth century, but illustrate the influence of the Byzantine style in a similar manner to those which were built centuries earlier. In the early nineteenth century there were over two hundred mosques in Constantinople and an even larger number of chapels, besides hundreds of medreses or mosque colleges.

The old walls of Constantinople, in courses of stone and red brick, measure fourteen miles in circuit. One of the most noteworthy points in the walls is the gate of St Romanus (Top Kapusi) which is denoted by an inscription on the far right of the composition. Sultan Mohammed entered Constantinople through this gate after the fall of the city into Turkish hands in 1453. This marked the end of Roman rule and the recreation of Constantinople as the capital of the Ottoman empire