The succeeding gate, Yeni Aya Kapou, was opened, it would seem, in Turkish times, being first mentioned by Evlia Tchelebi. There is, however, one circumstance in favour of regarding it as a small Byzantine entrance, enlarged after the Conquest. On the right of the gate, within the line of the walls, are the remains of a large Byzantine edifice, which could hardly have dispensed with a postern.
Aya Kapou, the next entrance, as its Turkish name intimates, and the order of Pusculus requires, is the Porta Divæ Theodosiæ (Πύλη τῆς Ἁγίας Θεοδοσίας),[[719]] so named in honour of the adjoining Church of St. Theodosia (now Gul Djamissi), the first martyr in the cause of Icons, under Leo the Isaurian. The gate was also known by the name Porta Dexiocrates, after the district of Dexiocrates in which it stood.[[720]] This identification rests upon the fact that while Pachymeres[[721]] affirms that the body of St. Theodosia lay in the church dedicated to her memory, the Synaxaristes declares that she was buried in the Monastery of Dexiocrates.[[722]] Only by the supposition that the Church of St. Theodosia stood in the district of Dexiocrates can these statements be reconciled. The church is first mentioned by Antony of Novgorod.[[723]] The festival of the saint, falling on May 29th, coincided with the day on which, in 1453. the city was captured by the Turks. As usual, a large crowd of worshippers, many of them ladies, filled the sacred edifice, little thinking of the tragedy which would interrupt their devotions, when suddenly Turkish troops burst into the church and carried the congregation off into slavery.[[724]]
The next gate, Djubali Kapoussi, must be the entrance styled Porta Puteæ by Pusculus,[[725]] and Porta del Pozzo by Zorzo Dolfin;[[726]] for it is the only entrance between the Gate of St. Theodosia (Aya Kapou) and the Porta Platea (Oun Kapan Kapoussi), the gates between which the writers above mentioned place the Porta Puteæ. Although no Byzantine author has mentioned the Porta Puteæ by its Greek name, there can be no doubt that the name in vogue among foreigners was the translation, more or less exact, of the native style of the entrance, and that consequently the gate marks the point designated Ispigas (εἰς Πηγὰς) by the Chronista Novgorodensis, in his account of the operations of the Venetian fleet against the harbour fortifications on the 12th of April, 1204. The ships of the Crusaders, says that authority, were then drawn up before the walls, in a line extending from the Monastery of Christ the Benefactor and Ispigas, on the east, to Blachernæ, on the west: “Cum solis ortu steterunt, in conspectu ecclesiæ Sancti Redemptoris, quæ dicitur τοῦ Εὐεργέτου, et Ispigarum, Blachernis tenus.”[[727]]
The name of the gate alluded to the suburb of Pegæ (Πηγαὶ), situated directly opposite, on the northern shore of the harbour, and noted for its numerous springs of water. Dionysius Byzantius, in his Anaplus of the Golden Horn and the Bosporus,[[728]] describes the locality at length, naming it Krenides (Κρηνίδες). on account of its flowing springs (πηγαίων), which gave the district the character of marshy ground. The suburb appears under the name Pegæ in the history of the siege of the city by the Avars, when the Imperial fleet formed a cordon across the harbour, from the Church of St. Nicholas at Blachernæ to the Church of St. Conon and the suburb of Pegæ, to prevent the enemy’s flotilla of boats in the streams at the head of the Golden Horn from descending into the harbour.[[729]]
According to Antony of Novgorod, the suburb was situated to the west of St. Irene of Galata; it contained several churches, and was largely inhabited by Jews.[[730]] It appears again in the old Records of the Genoese colony of Galata in the fourteenth century, under the name Spiga, or De Spiga, to the west of that town.[[731]] Critobulus calls it the Cold Waters (Ψυχρὰ Ὕδατα), placing it on the bay into which Sultan Mehemet brought his ships over the hills from the Bosporus.[[732]]
As appears from the passage of the Chronista Novgorodensis, cited above, near the Porta Puteæ stood the Monastery of Christ the Benefactor, interesting as a conspicuous landmark in the scenes associated with the Latin Conquest of the city.
The fire which the Venetians set near the portion of the Harbour Walls captured in 1203, reduced to ashes the quarters extending from Blachernæ as far east as that monastery.[[733]] The monastery marked also the eastern extremity of the line of battle in which the ships of the Crusaders delivered the final attack upon the walls on April 12, 1204;[[734]] while the fire which illuminated the victory of that day started in the neighbourhood of that religious house, and raged eastwards to the quarter of Drungarius.[[735]] During the Latin occupation the Venetians established a dockyard on the shore in the vicinity of the monastery;[[736]] the adjoining district, including the Church of Pantocrator[[737]] (now Zeirek Klissè Djamissi) and the Church of Pantopoptes[[738]] (now Eski Imaret Mesdjidi), on the Fourth Hill, being their head-quarters.
CHAPTER XV.
THE WALLS ALONG THE GOLDEN HORN—continued.
The next gate on the list of Pusculus and Dolfin is the Porta Platea, or Porta ala Piazza,[[739]] evidently the Porta of the Platea (Πόρτα τῆς Πλατέας) mentioned by Ducas.[[740]] The entrance, judging by its name, was situated beside a wide tract of level ground, and is, consequently, represented by Oun Kapan Kapoussi, which stands on the plain near the Inner Bridge, at the head of the important street running across the city from sea to sea, through the valley between the Fourth and Fifth Hills. The district beside the gate was known as the Plateia (Πλατεῖα),[[741]] and contained the churches dedicated respectively to St. Laurentius and the Prophet Isaiah.[[742]] The blockade of the Harbour Walls in 1453 by the Turkish ships in the Golden Horn extended from the Xylo Porta to the Gate of the Platea.[[743]] If the legend on Bondelmontius’ map may be trusted, this gate bore also the name Mesè, the Central Gate, a suitable designation for an entrance at the middle point in the line of the harbour fortifications.
The succeeding gate, Ayasma Kapoussi, was opened, it would seem, after the Turkish Conquest. It is not mentioned by Gyllius, or Leunclavius, or Gerlach. The conjecture that it represents a gate in the Wall of Constantine, styled Porta Basilikè, situated near the Church of St. Acacius ad Caream (τὸν ἅγιον Ἀκάκιον, τὴν Καρυὰν, ἐν τῇ Βασιλικῇ Πόρτα)[[744]] does not appear very probable. The Church of St. Acacius, situated in the Tenth Region,[[745]] was the sanctuary to which Macedonius, the bishop of the city, removed the sarcophagus of Constantine the Great, from the Church of the Holy Apostles on the summit of the Fourth Hill, when the latter edifice threatened to fall and crush the Imperial tomb.[[746]] The bishop’s action encountered the violent opposition of a large class of the citizens, and led to a riot in which much blood was shed. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to believe that the sarcophagus of Constantine was transported from its original resting-place to a point so distant as the neighbourhood of Ayasma Kapoussi, especially when the removal was a temporary arrangement, made until the repairs on the Church of the Holy Apostles should be completed. It is more probable that St. Acacius was near the Church of the Holy Apostles. Furthermore, we cannot be sure that the Porta Basilikè was a gate in the Wall of Constantine. The Church of St. Acacius stood near a palace erected by that emperor (πλησίον τῶν οἰκημάτων τοῦ μεγάλου Κωνσταντίνου):[[747]] or, as described elsewhere, was a small chapel (οἰκίσκον εὐκτήριον) near a palace named Karya, because close to a walnut-tree on which the saint was supposed to have suffered martyrdom by hanging.[[748]] The Porta Basilikè may have been a gate leading into the court of that palace.