Rodrigo's Journal

Roger Short Travel Scholarship Turkey, September 2011 Rodrigo García-Velasco Introduction I would like to start this travel diary by thanking everyone involved in the Roger Short Trust. The efforts of this scheme have been commendable ever since it started. I cannot in any way express my gratitude for the opportunity I was granted this summer. In February 2011, I decided to apply for the Roger Short Scholarship because as a Univ historian I had been studying the Crusades and I thought that following the route of the Crusaders from Constantinople to Aleppo could be a very fascinating enterprise. However, the Arab Spring and the Spanish Embassy at Damascus encouraged me to change my plans or to genuinely risk my life under my own liability, so I was kindly allowed by Sir Ivor Crewe to modify my itinerary and travel only around the much safer Turkey. This was not a problem for me: not only it was directly related to the Crusades through the history of Byzantium, but also through the history of other peoples around Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean region (such as Turks, Armenians, or Arabs), and which Latins and Greeks had to fend off at different stages. In April that year came the time to choose my Special Subject, the most important optional subject an undergrad historian at Oxford has to do in his three years of university. I did not hesitate: for the past three months I have been studying tenth‐century Byzantium. My penchant for Medieval History and for this region, and the opportunity granted by the scholarship of visiting the territories of the Eastern Empire were the two main reasons why I chose this particular subject. Thus, the trip became one of the most valuable of my life. For me to be able to physically experience the landscape and architecture the chronicles speak about has been crucial for me familiarity and understanding of some of the pivotal issues of tenth‐century history of Asia Minor. I left for Istanbul on the 1st of September 2011, and came back to Madrid (my hometown) on the 25th of September to go up to Oxford three days after, ready to start the 2011‐12 academic course. Because of the tight schedule, I could not finish my Travel Diary before the beginning of Michaelmas term 2011, and for that I must apologise. But had I given it in at the beginning of term, I would not have been able to handle the knowledge which I have been building up over 1 these past months, which has made me understand better the places which I had visited a month ago, and hence helped me put together a better account. The itinerary was an ambitious one, and took me weeks of planning, reading and consulting my tutors. The first days were spent at Istanbul, which gave me the necessary background knowledge. Eceabat (Gallipoli peninsula) and Troy followed; then staying at Pergamon and Selçuk (from where I travelled to Ephesus, Priene, Milet and Didama). Then I headed inland, to Pamukkale (also seeing Aphrodisias, 50km south west), and then to Konya. From Konya I went to Cappadocia, then shortly going to Ankara, and culminating my travel by taking a 12‐hour overnight bus to Trabzon. After that, I flew into Istanbul and stayed there for three more days enjoying the beauties of probably one of my favourite cities in the world. A friend of mine (Eduardo Jones, at joined me independently for the first 14 days of the trip, and I then carried on my own for the rest of the time. This is why I speak in first person plural verbal tense for the account of the City up to Cappadocia; then I turn to first person singular. The present diary in itself is a brief recollection of some of my notes from the trip, and thoughts on the subject that I have been having over the past months, accompanied by some of the photos I took. I know there are things missing in this account. This does not mean that I did not enjoy them. It means that visiting places such as Didama or Ankara were less relevant to the direct purpose of my travelling. I still found both places stunning: in the former there was a magnificent Hellenistic Apollo temple, apparently the biggest in Asia Minor. The latter’s Museum of Anatolian Civilisations was amazing, particularly its collection of Hittite remains. University College, Oxford November 2011 2 Istanbul Before starting At the airport, having not yet departed, the delays were already making me quite anxious. I hate ‘wasting’ time when travelling, time flies by! So as we flew across Europe, I prepared a list of what to see in Istanbul to make the most of the visit. My aim was to cover as many Byzantine buildings (most of them now mosques, other in ruins) as possible. This was my list: Seraglio: Sultanahmet: - Archaeological Museum - Church of St Sergius and St Bacus - Topkapi Saray - Hagia Sophia - Church of St Irene - Sultanahmet Camii - Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Camii - Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum - Great Palace Mosaics Museum Bazaar area: - Yeni Camii - Kalenderhane Camii - Of course, the Bazaar - Rüstem Pasha Camii - Süleymaniye Camii Galata - Shehzade Camii Areas around the Land Walls of - Fatih Camii Theodosius: - Pantokrator Church North: South: -Edirne Gate - Fortress of the Seven Towers - Palace of the Porphyrogennitus - Church of St John of Studius - Chora Museum Ferry along the Bosporus to see the - Pammakristos Church palaces (Dolmobahçe) and the Fortresses - Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople of Europe and Asia The conclusion that I soon reached is that a visit to Istanbul was in its own an enormous challenge. And soon I was worrying about having enough time to see everything… All that I had studied so far about the Middle Byzantine Period, about the Crusades, and about the later Empire, all came together here in an eclectic way. The Turkish legacy of the past five hundred years also gave me insights into the region’s history until at least Atatürk’s rule. Istanbul was a great place from where to start to understand the history of the region. I am proud to say that we managed to visit all of these sites, without having to rush through them – we extended our time in the City from four to six days to do so. 3 The same afternoon of our arrival, after settling in our dorm, we let ourselves loose and walked across the City. Through the Great Bazaar we went down to Taksim, then across the bridge and up to Galata. This is when I remembered Eduardo d’Amicis Constantinople, and felt the same way as he did: ‘If the captain had said to you, “Tomorrow morning we shall see Stambul,” you would probably have answered, quite calmly, “Indeed! I am very glad to hear it.” But suppose, instead, you had brooded over the idea for ten years; had passed many a winter’s evening mournfully studying the map of the East; had fired your imagination by reading hundreds of books on the subject; had travelled over one half of Europe merely to console yourself for not being able to see the other half… ; then you would have some idea of the real meaning of those words…’ Walking through Istanbul that first afternoon, walking up to Galata, I realised that after two years of university in which I had dedicated so many hours studying this city, reading texts which narrated the beauties of New Rome, I was standing where they had all been centuries ago. Studying History generally requires a lot of imagination. Experiencing a similar geography, climate, and the hints of Byzantine contemporary visual culture helped to shape the image of Byzantium I had been building up in my head through the chronicles of Anna Comnena, Geoffrey of Villehardouin, or Nicetas Choniates. First stop, Hagia Sophia: Of course, it was one of the highlights of the trip. Its mosaics had been put together during the reigns of Basil I, Leo VI and Constantine VII Porphyrogennitus, during the ninth and tenth centuries. Given that this is exactly what I do for my Special Subject, it was pretty special. My miscellaneous notes from the day say the following: ‐ Great restoration of the dome (completed in 2010, using a complex system of rotational scaffolding) and of the four Serafins. Only one original remaining, the rest painted during nineteenth-century restoration. ‐ Faded Greek crosses mosaic decorations in the ceiling of lateral corridors (ground floor and galleries): they were part of the Justinian decoration of the sixth century. During the rule of Photios as Patriarch, and later on (ninth- and tenth-centuries), these crosses were covered with new iconophile forms and figures. ‐ Earthquake evidence in the southern gallery: marble floor cracked. How was it fixed? Is it still precarious? ‐ Note two mosaics: (1) On top of the Imperial Gate: Leo VI bowing to an enthroned Christ, composition of c.912-930; (2) on the Southern entrance (now exit): Constantine the Great and Justinian offering the Walls and St Sophia to Jesus, commissioned during the reign of Constantine VII. As I took these notes I imagined the imperial procession into the Church; I imagined the pomp during the coronation by the Patriarch, the robes of the dignitaries, the splendorous decoration throughout, the eunuchs singing. For some historians this is all too good to be true: a few have argued that Hagia Sophia, and Byzantine pageant in general, was as emotionless as the mechanical 4 nightingale in Andersen’s fairy tale. However, once you walk through the doors into the nave you understand the awe that might have struck Greeks (and Turks) throughout the times.

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