The Great Palace Mosaic Museum of Istanbul Sultanahmet
In the beginning of 21st Century, the neighboring places of Ishakpasa in Sultanahmet were completely destroyed by a devastating fire that engulfed the region. On 3rd June, 1912, yet another tragedy took place resulting in destroying the wooden houses of the city. However, for the archaeologists, this tragic disaster was a blessing in disguise. Researchers wasted no time once the debris of the burnt houses destroyed in the fire behind Haghia Sophia as well as the Sultanahmet was cleared. This led to the discovery of the Byzantine Great Palace by Wiegand, a German archaeologist, and Mamboury, a Swiss topographer.
The excavation work of the Byzantine Great Palace built by Justinian I (527- 565) started in the year 1935 by a group of archaeologists led by Prof. Baxter from St. Andrews University. While looking for remains of the Byzantine Great Palace, they discovered a small yet beautiful collection of mosaics believed to be belonging to the era of Justinian the Great. The excavation work had to be halted briefly due to the outbreak of the 2nd World War and was later resumed in between the years 1951-1954.
The collection of mosaics discovered in this century is believed to be one of the largest and most exquisite collections of mosaics belonging to the sixth century. Although, originally the courtyard was nearly 2000 square meters, but now, only 180 square meters remains, as displayed in the museum.
The pavement has some very vivid and intricate motifs covering nearly 9 m area along with a border of 1.5 m. There are exclusive and lively images of fruits and animals including tortoises and reptiles like lizards and serpents. Then, the collection includes four male figures personifying the four different seasons while the border is believed to the symbol of the god Dionysus’ fertile world.
The images also include mythical beasts and some enchanting imagery of hunting activity so common in the era they belong to. The liveliness and the wide variety of the mosaics in the Mosaic Museum is unmatched for. For example, there are images of a man milking a goat, a monkey climbing up a palm tree and beating the dates, an elephant being attacked by a furious lion and a deer biting a serpent like reptile.
You will also come across images of kids playing with wild beasts while there are some pictures representing the village life of herdsmen grazing animals. So, in these mosaics, the nature is shown in full bloom while it does not miss to depict other themes as well making the total number of scenes covered in the mosaics to around 90 and the animal as well as human figures to nearly 150.
Due to being exposed to extreme weather conditions, the mosaics suffered serious deterioration over the period. It was only after a campaign by the Department of Monuments and Museums of Turkey and the Austrian government was initiated to restore and preserve the antique mosaics from further damage using conservation methods.
Located in Torun Street also known as Arasta Carsisi which is a street belonging to the 17th Century, one can get a true, eye-catching and vivid glimpse of the Great Palace Mosaic Museum which depicts the life of Istanbul under the Byzantine rule nearly 1400 years back.
