Basilica Cistern

 








The Basilica Cistern, which was used for a while to meet the water needs of Topkapi Palace after the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottomans in 1453, was also used as the only source of water by the people of the neighborhood built on it. The Basilica Cistern was first studied in detail between the years 1544 and 1555 by the naturalist and topographer Petrus Gyllius. According to Gyllius, the Basilica was 336 feet long by 182 feet wide; its circumference was approximately 224 Roman steps. Petrus Gyllius, who did not neglect to count the columns of the building which he called the "Basilica Cistern", determined that there were many wells at the top of the structure in addition to the 336 columns.




The Basilica Cistern, one of the most important witnesses of Istanbul's glorious history. was built by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. The building, which is called "Cisterna Basilica" in Latin, and known as the Basilica Palace and Basilica Cistern today, met the water needs of the city for centuries by distributing the water obtained from historical waterways such as the Hadrian's Pipeline and from rain to the Great Palace where the emperors resided, and to the surrounding structures.



In the long years following the repairsmade during the reign of Sultan AhmetIll and Abdülhamid II, the Basilica Cistern withstood the test of time on itsown and was opened to visitors as a museum affiliated to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality after therepair works in 1985-1987. Restoration practices carried out by IMM Heritagebetween the years 2019-2022 wererecorded as the most comprehensiverepair work of the Basilica Cisternundertaken since its construction.






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