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Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul – three cultures, one city. Once a Greek outpost named Byzan, the Romans recognized the watery triangulation of the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara as a vital trade route between Persia and the Mediterranean. They took it from the Greeks, built fortifications for protection, and aqueducts to bring water from the highlands, and renamed it Byzantium.

As the Roman Empire became pressured from within by corruption, and from without by Barbarian hordes, the emperor Constantine concentrated his power to Byzantium and renamed the city after himself. In 300 A.D., after banning the persecution of Christians, he and subsequent eastern emperors started a building spree the world had never seen, and Constantinople became the center of culture for a thousand years while Europe sank into the Dark Ages. 

In the 1400’s the Ottoman’s, after countless attempts, finally took Constantinople, renamed the city Istanbul, and introduced a Muslim culture. So it remains today, with a secular government that retains much that is European – the only city in the world that spans both the continents of Europe and Asia.

It was in an art class at the University of Innsbruck that I first became interested in Constantinople. The focal point of my interest was a mosaic in the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, just south of Venice. Emissaries traveling from Rome to Constantinople in the mid-500’s A.D. returned with stories of the epic, heavenly church built by the emperor Justinian, completed in 527. It had a huge, sprawling dome that had never been attempted, let alone achieved (this was a thousand years before the domes of St. Peter’s and the Duomo in Florence). The internal worship space was the largest in Christendom.

To honor Justinian’s impact on Christianity, a mosaic was made of he and his wife Theodora (no political slouch herself) in San Vitale, a mosaic considered to be the most exquisite of its kind anywhere. It was this work of art that engendered my interest in Justinian’s church that entranced the entire Western world, named Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom. And so, many years later, I finally find myself in the city of Istanbul.

It is a thoroughly modern city, of course, with an old historical city center that draws the tourist dollars, euro, and yen. The tourist season is over, so the crowds are ample but relatively smaller. The days are still warm but the evenings cool, so outdoor dining is ubiquitous. Muslim women clad in black mix with Germans in shorts and rock t-shirts. The locals are remarkably friendly and helpful. Five hundred year old Turkish baths abound. Bosphorus boat tours leave port continuously, and lines for the Blue Mosque, the Galata Tower and Hagia Sophia grow early in the day. The Hippodrome and the ancient aqueducts are surrounded by quaint little restaurants. The Grand Bazaar bustles at all times with hagglers and deal searchers. 

I judge a city by its food, and the food here is fresh, given the Turk’s love of vegetables and it being harvest time. Grilled veggies are the norm – tomatoes, banana peppers, cucumbers. Lamb is ever-available, but the chicken and beef are superb. Meat is served as a “kabop” (kabob) or as a meatball. A dressing of yogurt, sour cream and dill gets slathered over anything on the plate. Seafood is especially good, with fishmongers selling their goods straight from the water to the bistros on the beach. Octopus, sea bass and bream are the most common offerings, and the best seafood is in the Armenian section along the shore of Marmara. The Turkish coffee is delicious and pungent. Restaurants offer a complimentary digestif of tea, brandy or raki when the bill arrives. And of course, a daily hookah after a meal is a most civilized practice.

All in all, it’s a great city to eat in, with historical wanderings to fill the time between café’s and meals. Istanbul delivers as advertised, and I surely hope to return.