Description of the attraction
Chamberlitas is a square located on the site where the ancient Forum of Emperor Constantine was located. Of all the structures of this complex, only the column of Constantine has partially survived. This column has long been considered the main symbol of the Byzantine Empire. It was erected by decree of the Emperor Constantine on May 11, 330 in honor of his conquest of Byzantium on September 18, 324. It happened on November 8, 324 during the celebrations and on the occasion of the proclamation of the new capital of the Roman Empire - Constantinople. From the very beginning, it was the pedestal for the statue of the emperor. This column was the centerpiece of the grand square, where the colonnade, statues of Christian saints and pagan gods were also placed.
Nowadays it is called "Chamberlitash" (which translates as "Rock with hoops"). The only drawing of this column, which has survived and has come down to our times, dates back to 1574 and is kept in the library of the College of the Holy Trinity in the English city of Cambridge. You can get to the structure if you walk from Sultanahmet Square towards the Grand Istanbul Bazaar and Beyazet Square along Divan Yolu Street.
It was erected in the center of the Forum of Constantine, which at the same time was built on the second city hill, just behind the defensive walls of old Byzantium. Then this forum was an oval-shaped square, surrounded by an imposing marble colonnade, which had two monumental gates facing the west and east of the city. It was decorated with many beautiful antique statues, the location of which is now impossible to determine.
The column is made in the form of a truncated regular four-stage pyramid and erected on a five-meter base made of porphyry. On it was a column chair, which had a square shape and was decorated with a bas-relief. The barrel, which had a height of twenty-five meters, consisted of seven drums, the diameter of which was about three meters. The drums were encircled by metal hoops with gilded, closed bronze wreaths. All drums were also porphyry, except for the eighth, which was made of marble. The majestic structure is crowned with a marble capital. A golden imperial statue in the shape of the god Apollo was erected on the abacus of the capital, with a nail from the Cross of the Son of God fused into it. For this reason, the inhabitants of the city of Constantinople initially began to call this architectural monument "The Column of the Nail". The height of the monument was about 38 meters.
During the earthquake of 600 - 601 years, which occurred at the end of the reign of the emperor of Mauritius, the statue of Constantine the Great collapsed, while the column itself was severely damaged. It was completely restored during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (610 - 641), and in 1081 - 1118, under Emperor Alexei I, the statue fell to the ground again from being hit by lightning and crushed several passers-by. The monument was restored only during the reign of Emperor Manuel I (1143 - 1180), but soon the statue collapsed again and it was replaced with a cross. After this event, the monument received a new colloquial name - "Column with the Cross". Later, after 1204, this building was badly damaged by the actions of the crusaders. Its foundation was weakened by an adit, which was dug in order to search for relics, and the bas-relief was removed and taken to Western Europe. At the present time, part of it, which the Turks call "Tetrarchs", was embedded in the wall of St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice.
Already in the second half of the 20th century, during the archaeological excavations carried out in Constantinople, the missing element of the bas-relief was found, which is currently kept in the archaeological museum of Istanbul. After the fall of Constantinople, which occurred in early June 1453, the Turks threw the cross from this column.
In 1779, a strong fire that occurred in the vicinity of the square destroyed most of the buildings, and after that the column was left with black spots from the fire. The column was nicknamed "The Burnt Column" after this event. By order of Sultan Abdülhamid I, Chamberlitash was restored and new foundations were laid on it. The iron hoops were replaced with new ones. This made it possible to keep the column in an upright position for subsequent centuries. The first base of the column was located about 3 meters below the current level. This means that the column, which is presented today for the viewing of tourists, is, in fact, only a part of the original structure.
Haluk Egemen Sarikaya, a Turkish parapsychologist, wrote the following about this column in one of his works: “Like any sacred structure, emberlitash is probably connected with the underground system of the region”. Confirmation of these words was found in the 1930s during archaeological excavations in the vicinity of the Column of Constantine, during which the vestibules, made in the form of a labyrinth, were discovered. Hence the conviction that emberlitas is a kind of gateway providing access to the underground galleries of Istanbul.
