Çemberlitaş ( Turkish: 'Hooped Column') is a quarter in the

Fatih Fatih () is a district of and a municipality (''belediye'') in Istanbul, Turkey, and home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the governor's office, police headquarters, metropolitan municipality and tax office) but not the co ...

district of

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

on the European side of the city. It takes its name from the Çemberlitaş Column, also known as the Column of Constantine, which stands beside the Çemberlitaş stop on the T1 tram line. Çemberlitaş abuts Sultanahmet to the east,

Cağaloğlu Cağaloğlu is a quarter located in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. Much of the publishing industry in Istanbul is located in Cağaloğlu. It is also famous for its ancient hamam, or Turkish bath, known as the Cağaloğlu Hamam. Name The q ...

to the north, Beyazit to the west and Gedikpaşa to the south. At the heart of Çemberlitaş is a large square framed to the south by Divan Yolu with the tramline running along it. On the east side is

Çemberlitaş Hamamı The Çemberlitaş Hamamı is a historical Turkish bath ( tr, hamam) that was built beside Divan Yolu, a processional road dating back to the Byzantine Era that once led to Rome,Ergin, Nina. “Bathing Business in Istanbul: A Case Study of the Ce ...

, a

Turkish bath A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...

probably designed by the famous 16th-century Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan with separate sections for men and women (it's still in business today). Adjoining it is the crumbling 17th-century Vezir Hanı. The

Nuruosmaniye Mosque The Nuruosmaniye Mosque ( tr, Nuruosmaniye Camii) is an 18th-century Ottoman mosque located in the Çemberlitaş neighbourhood of Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2016 it was inscribed in the Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turke ...

forms the northern side of the square, abutting the Grand Bazaar. On the south side of the tramline is the small mid-17th-century Köprülü Mosque built for the grand vizier Köprülü Mehmed Paşa. Heading west from the main square run a string of small mosques and religious complexes: the late 15th-century Atik Ali Paşa Mosque, the Koca Sinan Paşa complex and the Çorlulu Ali Paşa complex are on the north side of the tramline while the Kara Mustafa Paşa complex is on its south side.

Forum of Constantine and the Çemberlitaş

Çemberlitaş was originally the site of one of the forums that dotted Divan Yolu. The original Forum of Constantine was an oval-shaped public arena surrounded by porticoes and filled with statuary. In 330, when he decided to make

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium' ...

the capital of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

, the

Emperor Constantine Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterrane ...

had a porphyry

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...

erected in the middle of the forum with a statue of himself as

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

on the top of it. The column was badly damaged by an earthquake in 416 since when it has been held together by iron bands. The statue on the top survived until 1106 when it was replaced with a large cross that survived until the Conquest of İstanbul in 1453. I

References

Quarters of Fatih {{Istanbul-geo-stub