The Church of Saint Polyeuktos was one of the most beautiful and influential buildings in Byzantine Constantinople. It was built to showcase the wealth and patronage of Anicia Juliana scion of the Theodosian dynasty. It may have been the direct inspiration for Justinian's Hagia Sophia. He was certainly determined to outshine it.
The building was then looted by Crusaders and Ottomans alike - a testament to the outstanding craftsmanship of its construction.
This video is part of a series - 'The History of Byzantium goes to Istanbul.' In 2018 the listeners of the podcast funded a Kickstarter to send me to Istanbul. I documented many of the surviving Byzantine sites and have made videos about them.
I am now able to offer tours to Istanbul (and beyond) for listeners of the podcast. Email me if you'd like to know more (thehistoryofbyzantium at gmail.com).
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For more information about Byzantine Constantinople visit [ Ссылка ]. It's a fantastic website providing breakdowns of the Byzantine buildings that can still be seen today and there you'll find most of the still images and sketches used in these videos.
'The History of Byzantium' is a podcast telling the story of the Roman Empire from 476 AD to 1453. The podcast home page is here [ Ссылка ] and you can support the show at [ Ссылка ]
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