History

The so-called Tekfur Sarayı (Palace of the Sovereign) is the only well-preserved residential building of Byzantine Constantinople.1 Standing on a hill at the north end of the Theodosian land walls, Tekfur Sarayı occupies the space between the main wall of the city and the parallel outer wall (proteichisma or mikron teichos). The south side of the palace is adjacent to a tower of the land walls that was repaired in the twelfth century.2 Tekfur Sarayı was erected in the vicinity of the Blachernai Palace, but the exact relation of the two buildings remains unclear.3 Though the Byzantine history of the building remains largely unknown, its identification with the palace of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, third son of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (1261-87), has largely been accepted as convincing.4 The physical connection of Tekfur Sarayı with the city walls coupled with the inaccessibility of its lower zone indicate the commissioner’s need for increased security. As Slobodan Ćurčić has argued, the incorporation of the pre-existing tower into the building’s south wing is consistent with contemporary architectural developments in the Balkans that served to emphasize the defensive character of fortified palaces.5

In the Ottoman period, Tefkur Sarayı changed its function, and the sultans used it as a menagerie in the sixteenth century.6 By the first half of the eighteenth century, a ceramic workshop was established in the premises of the palace, which provided tiles for the monuments of the city between 1726 and 1750, for example for the fountain in front of Topkapı Sarayı.7 Later on, in the ninenteenth century, members of the city’s Jewish commmunity resided in the building.8

Architecture    

Only the shell of the trapezoid three-story palace survives today. The architectural configuration and decorative features of the building point towards a Palaiologan date for the initial construction.9 Due to alterations caused by damage and several phases of restoration, our information of the design and spatial articulation of Tekfur Sarayı relies on older drawings, in particular those by Charles Texier and Wilhelm Salzenberg.10 The ground floor of the north wing opens through four monumental arches to a walled courtyard. The arches are supported by a pair of a pilaster and a column on each side of a central pier. As Otto Feld has demonstrated, the column capitals are spolia; the one on the left, which featured an elaborate rosette, probably dates to the Middle Byzantine period, while the one on the right should be given a third-or-fourth-century date.11 The ceiling consisted of light brick vaults resting on six marble columns, which have disappeared. The first floor, whose northern façade was pierced by arched windows, may have been divided into several rooms.12 The banding of arches above the windows corresponds to the large arches of the ground floor. The second floor featured a balcony or terrace with an overhanging structure, most likely a chapel, on the eastern side and was decorated on the north side with seven double-arched windows,13 which did not correspond to the openings of the lower zones. Both upper floors were timber-roofed.

Decoration

It has been noted that the overall architectural design and especially the portico facade of Tekfur Sarayı which overlooks the courtyard, bear strong similarities with the west wing of the palace of despots at Mistra and the outer narthex of Hagia Sophia in Ochrid.14 At the same time, certain decorative features, such as the lion-shaped gargoyle decorating the projecting corbel of the terrace—evident in Texier’s drawing—and the heraldic escutcheons below the window arches recall trends attested in the aristocratic palaces of thirteenth-century Italy, especially Venice.15 Ćurčić has also seen the use of brick, tile, and marble in unusually intricate patterns on the spandrels and frames of the windows, as being reminiscent of the Byzantine churches in Mesembria.16      

History of Archaeological and Restoration Works

In 1995, 1999, and 2001, an archaeological team under the direction of Filiz Yenişehirlioğlu conducted excavations on the ground floor and in the courtyard of Tekfur Sarayı.17 They uncovered the foundations of two kilns on the southeast section of the ground floor and traces of a ceramic workshop across the remaining space, including a water reservoir on the north side. A small basin was discovered in the courtyard of the complex, most likely dating to the Byzantine period and used through the eighteenth century.

Alongside the Land Walls, the quarter of Tefkur Sarayı has been declared as a World Heritage Site and was included in UNESCO’s list of Historic Areas of Istanbul in 1985.18 However, a recent report of concern on the conservation issues arising from the management of the Land Walls, has demonstrated that the operational guidelines for the implementation of the Land Walls and the surviving ruins of Tekfur Sarayı have largely been overlooked.19 The extensive reconstruction work carried out at Tekfur Sarayı in particular, received criticism as it resulted in considerable obliteration of the multilayered architectural history of the building.20

• 1. Van Millingen 1899: 109-14. See also, Meyer-Plath and Schneider 1943: 95-100; Mango 1965: 330-36; Müller-Wiener 1977: 244-47; Ahunbay 1997: 248-51; Asutay-Effenberger 2007: 135-42; Ćurčić 2010: 528-31.
• 2. Ahunbay 1997: 248.
• 3. Mango 1965: 335-36, notes that Michael VIII Palaiologos carried our restoration works at the Blachernai between 1261 and 1271, which might have included Tekfur Sarayı.
• 4. Van Millingen 1899: 109, was the first to connect Tekfur Sarayı with the Palace of Porphyrogennetos
• 5. Ćurčić 2000: 11-41, at pp. 11-18; Ćurčić 2010: 528.
• 6. Ahunbay 1997: 250.
• 7. Yenişehirlioğlu 2009: 617-32, at 627.
• 8. Paspates 1877: 62.
• 9. Mango 1965: 334; Yenişehirlioğlu 2009: 618.
• 10. Salzenberg 1854; The drawings of Charles Felix Marie Texier (ca. 1802-71) are now housed in the Royal British Architectural Library (RIBA)
• 11. Feld 1969-70: 359-67; Mango 1965: 333. On the capital featuring the rosette comprised of four star-shaped palm trees, see Dennert 1997: 63-5, fig. 143, who conjectures that the decorative patterns suggest either a Palaiologan or a Middle Byzantine date.
• 12. Ahunbay 1997: 248.
• 13. Mango 1965: 330, based on Texier’s drawings suggests that a chapel was built on the balcony.
• 14. On the palace of despots in Mistra, see Orlandos 1937: 50, fig. 35-6. Mango 1965: 334. Now see, Sinos 2009: 337-73.
• 15. Krautheimer 1986: 448-49.
• 16. Ćurčić 2010: 530.
• 17. For the detailed archaeological reports, see Yenişehirlioğlu 2003: 329-44; Yenişehirlioğlu 2009: 617-32.
• 18. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/356/ accessed on February 17, 2017.
• 19. Çorakbaş, Aksoy, and Ricci 2014.
• 20. Çorakbaş, Aksoy, and Ricci 2014: 17, characterize the work as a reconstruction of the Byzantine palace, which based on current conservation principles, should be viewed as an improper intervention. Furthermore, the restoration process has been criticized in the press. See, for example, Dombey 2015; Ferentinou 2014; Akyürek 2014; İnan 2014.