Today is the 550th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. Although most westerners think of this as the end of the "Byzantine" Empire, it was really the end of the last vestige of the Roman Empire, which had been contracting in fits and starts for nearly a millennium. The Empire's people called themselves Romans, and so did their conquerors, even after the empire had been extinguished. The emperors were officially titled "Emperor of the Romans" and saw themselves as the genuine heirs of the Caesars, albeit christian and not pagan.
Constantinople was built by and named for the Emperor Constantine, who transferred his capital here from Rome in AD 330. It was ideally situated for defensive purposes, and indeed the city was successfully conquered only twice: in 1204 by the Crusaders and in 1453 by the Ottomans.
Throughout much of what we call the middle ages, Constantinople was the largest city in the known world. It was the centre of Christendom at a time when western Europe was still sparsely populated. The City was dominated by the magnificent dome of the Church of the Holy Wisdom, or Aghia Sophia, an architectural wonder built between 532 and 537 by Justinian I. This was the mother church (metropolis) of Orthodox Christianity and the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch.
The fall of the City came after a lengthy siege on tuesday, 29 May 1453. It was renamed Istanbul by Mustafa Kemal, founder of the modern Turkish republic. But Istanbul is not actually a Turkish name; it comes from the Greek "eis ten polin," meaning "to the City." For all Greeks, well into the 20th century, Constantinople was quite simply "The City."
Moldovita Monastery, Roumania
A sizeable Greek Orthodox community remained in Constantinople up until September 1955, when a series of pogroms prompted most to leave. At present the Greek-speaking community numbers a few thousand elderly people at most. Aghia Sophia is now a museum.
