Description of the attraction
The Serpentine Column was originally a column under the Apollo's golden tripod. It is one of the oldest monuments in the city of Istanbul. The column was brought from the Delphic sanctuary of Apollo in Greece in 326 by order of the Emperor Constantine the Great. September 26, 479 BC the Greeks defeated the Persians in a major battle at Plataea (Boeotia, Greece). The column became a symbol of victory over the Persians in the Greek city-states. On the Serpentine Column there is an inscription with a list of these Greek cities that were directly involved in the battle in the city of Plateia. Herodotus spoke of this pillar, on which a golden tripod was once installed: “When the booty was collected (after the battle of Plataea), the Greeks divided a tenth part to the Delphic god (Apollo). From this tithe was also made a golden tripod, which stands in Delphi on a three-headed copper snake directly at the altar”(IX, 81).
In the original, this whole composition was about eight and a half meters high and consisted of three snakes intertwined in a rope. The heads of these snakes diverged from each other at an angle of one hundred and twenty degrees in different directions at the very top. The composition was crowned with a three-legged golden bowl, and the snakes themselves were poured from the bronze details of the shields of the Persians who died in that historic battle, made using the "spirelatos" technique.
For a long time, rumors spread that almost half of the column was buried underground during the construction of the Sultanahmet Mosque, and the golden vase from the column was removed by the crusaders, who captured and plundered the city of Constantinople in 1204.
Over the years, the column has changed a lot and has gone through a lot. The bowl was lost or stolen during antiquity, and the heads of the snakes “lived” for quite a long time, according to historical chronicles, until they were demolished in 1700. Despite all the changes that the original design has undergone, the column has not lost its originality at the present time and continues to be one of the famous tourist attractions of Turkey.
