Boukoleon Palace

The Bukoleon Palace (Greek Βουκολέων ) was one of the Byzantine palaces in Constantinople Opel. It was probably built by Theodosius II in the 5th century.

The palace is located on the shores of the Marmara Sea. The name Bukoleon he was probably after the end of the 6th century under Justinian I, when the little harbor was built in front of the palace, which is now filled with soil. Statues of bulls and lions stood there and gave the harbor and the palace its name ( βους and λέων are Greek for " bull" and "lion" ). The Bukoleon Palace was also called " Hormisdas Palace " and " Justinianpalast ".

Emperor Theophilos built around the palace, and advanced him. He added a large representative facade on the sea wall. The ruins reveal the remains of a balcony, from which one looked towards the sea, three decorated with marble inputs are still available.

Archaeologically and historically has so far been demonstrated only the construction of the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas. Nicephorus could be set up his residence at 967 in Bukoleon Palace. This garden was created in the first floor of the palace in a courtyard. From the side of the palace, the garden was completed by an arcade, the other walls were windowless, so that the rest of the Emperor was in his hanging garden disturbed by anything. At the center of the garden stood a Porphyrphiale.

Over the centuries, the Bukoleon Palace was built by different emperors resided there, expanded and incorporated into the palace area around the Grand Palace.

1204 at the siege of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade Opel, the Bukoleon Palace of Boniface I., Count of Montferrat was taken, the:

" Rode along the shore to Bukoleon Palace, and when he got there, there were him all that were therein, on condition that they would be left alive. In Bukoleon there was a large number of high ladies who had taken refuge in the palace, there were Agnes, sister of the King of France, the Empress had been, and Maria, the sister of the king of Hungary, who had also been empress, and very many other ladies. From the treasures that were found in the palace I can not speak, because there were so many, there are no words to describe them and no one could count, in any way. "

Among the prisoners was Princess Margaret, daughter of Bela III. , Married Boniface. During the Latin Empire of Bukoleon Palace was an imperial residence. After the reconquest of the city by Michael VIII Palaeologus, the palace, as the entire Grand Palace complex, in favor of the Blachernae Palace was abandoned. When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453 Opel, the palace was in ruins. The remains of the palace were in 1873 further destroyed to make way for a railway line. Later, several major fires and other construction activities the palace destroyed almost completely.