Golden Gate

It turns out, not only San Francisco has a Golden Gate. Istanbul does, too.

I wanted to make a walk along and on top of the city walls, the part that has been reconstructed… so I headed to the train station and hopped on a train in this direction (more on that adventure later) and arrived finally close to Yedikule Hisarı – the Fortress of the Seven Towers.

It didn’t look like the walls were actually accessible from there – my guidebook apparently referred to a part of the wall further north – but the Fortress looked just as impressive, so in I went, to explore.

It was quiet, not even a handful of tourists seem to have found their way out here, and the massive courtyard was mostly empty and overgrown with grass.

The fortress is actually built upon the much older Theodosian city walls, shortly after the take-over of the city by the Ottomans. But you can still see the main gate, the Golden Gate, in between two of its towers.

This gate was one of the most important city gates, and mostly used for ceremonial entries of the emperor, a victorious army coming back from a campaign or high standing visitors. The two other, smaller gates on each side were open to every day traffic.

It is impressive to walk through these old walls and on the old marble pavement, thinking of the life that happened here, merchants coming into the city, visitors, soldiers, thieves, kids playing… and now being abandoned in silence.

 

I found a small metal door in one of the adjacent towers and saw light inside… you could actually walk into there, something I did not expect.

There were no signs or anything, and the whole thing looked abandoned, so I slowly walked in, not sure if this was actually safe for visits, or just being forgotten and left open.

But on and on I went, a winding ancient staircase circling up inside the tower, the ceiling being ancient simple arches made of bricks and mortar, but still standing after some 1500 years or more…

On top, I had a fantastic view over parts of the city, the western neighborhoods outside the walls, the sea, lined with massive oil tankers, and in the far distance the old city with the Topkapi Palace and the minarets of Hagia Sophia and the Sultanhament Mosque.

I also got a good impression of these massive walls, it’s hard to think someone could actually breach them, even with cannons.

Yedikule Fortress was built onto these walls and towers by the conquerors, forming a pentagon, with several additional towers and outer defense walls.

I inspected some of the other towers, some empty, some still with basic wooden structures that indicated the interior layout, the different floors.

Some towers were used as prisons (some Hungarian and Romanian memorial inscriptions paying reference to some of their royal princes being retained there) or as treasury.

With the fortress built, the Golden Gate lost its function as a city gate.

However, local legend about Constantinople’s fall to the Ottomans has it that, when the Turks entered the city, an angel rescued the emperor Constantine XI.

His body was never identified, as he fell during the last efforts of defense.

It is said the angel turned him into marble and placed him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate.

This is where he waits to be brought to life again to conquer back the city.

Sleep well, the city is doing fine.