| In Search of Byzantium Review by David Barchard
Cornucopia 32 Below the forest of multi-storey apartment buildings all over Istanbul's Old City, remnants of Byzantium are to be found everywhere, and no serious tourist visits the city without paying a visit to Ayasofya, once the main cathedral of the East Roman Empire. John Freely and Ahmet S Cakmak's recently published Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul is perhaps the best survey ever written for the general reader - a triumph which puts the work of some professional Byzantinists in the shade.
Weighing in at 1.6 kilos and lavishly illustrated, it is a little heavy for the sightseer to lug around, but worth buying and reading up before you go. Hagia Sophia, by W. Eugene Kleinbauer, Antony White, Henry Mathews also provides an excellent summary of the church and its monuments, including a section on changes in the Ottoman period. This book would be worth buying for Tahsin Aydogmus's stunning photographs. Istanbul's other great Byzantine masterpiece, the frescoes and mosaics in the former Church of St Saviour in Chora, is covered in Robert Ousterhout's The Art of the Kariye Camii. Those who prefer old-fashioned guide books can either turn to John Freely's earlier guides to the city (including the classic Strolling Through Istanbul, written with Hilary Sumner-Boyd) or Ernest Mamboury's classic guide, Constantinople, published in 1924. Those wanting to dig still deeper should turn to Robert Ousterhout's Master Builders of Byzantium. | | |
