The historical symbolizing of Istanbul city through its iconic buildings

Abstract

Istanbul city has been historically symbolised through its iconic buildings during three different historical periods. The city that would later become a Byzantine city was formerly known as a Roman city in AD 196 and also as Constantinople, the new capital of the East Roman Empire. Finally, after 1453, during the Ottoman era, it was renamed as Istanbul which it still is today under the Turkish Republic. According to J. Ebersolt, Constantinople's previous cityscape had been determined by its structures that were interspersed along the antique seven-hills, rising above the city walls where the blue waters of the Golden Horn ended. (Ebersolt, 1918) Thus, as an ancient features of Istanbul throughout its history, the antique hills evolved and were emphasised by newly constructed forums or buildings. These buildings gave the city of Istanbul its identity and they were generally placed according to their importance along the antique axis of the ancient city hills. Although no longer wishing to regulate a city panorama sprinkled over the antique hills in a similar way to the Roman planning during the Ottoman period, the city still reflects the iconic structure emphasising the axis of those antique hills. (Petruccioli, 1991). After the Byzantine period, Istanbul city was transformed from a Roman-Byzantine city in to an Ottoman city with the newly built Ottoman mosques replacing the antique Roman forums and with their columns emphasising the antique hills axis.