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Event details

name	Basilica Cistern – Rediscovery
event type	Reuse
start date	1545
end date	1550
date comments	Gyllius stayed in Constantinople between 1545-1550.
installations	Basilica Cistern
persons	Petrus Gyllius (Pierre Gilles) - Inaugurator (1540-1550)
description	Apparently the cistern was forgotten after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. In the mid-16th century, Gilles records how he rediscovered the Basilica cistern. He highlights the supposed ignorance of the locals (that nonetheless knew they could collect water if they lowered buckets into the cistern) about the cistern's existence, priding himself with the achievement of (re)discovery. Gilles' records in De Topographia Constantinopoleos 2.20 that he explored the cistern by boat, and that it was filled with fish. He describes the measurements as '360 feet long, 182 feet broad, and 224 Roman paces in circumference'. He also gives a description of the brickwork being in good condition and gives a survey of the pillars and their capitals. In Gilles time (16th century) pipes still supplied water to the Basilica Cistern.
comments	Translation of Gilles can be found in Appendix 1 of Crow et al., 2008.

Literature connected to this Event

#	Code	Page	Excerpt
1	Gilles 1561 Ball	111-112	(De Topographia Constantinopoleos 2.20) The Imperial Portico is not to be seen, though the Cistern remains. Through the inhabitants' carelessness and contempt for everything that is curious it was never discovered except by me, who was a stranger among them, after a long and diligent search for it. The whole area was built over, which made it less suspected that there was a cistern there. The people had not the least suspicion of it, although they daily drew their water out of the wells that were sunk into it. By chance I went into a house where there was a way down into it and went aboard a little skiff. I discovered it after the master of the house lit some torches and rowed me here and there across through the pillars, which lay very deep in water. He was very intent upon catching his fish, with which the Cistern abounds, and speared some of them by the light of the torches. There is also a small light that descends from the mouth of the well and reflects on the water, where the fish usually come for air. This Cistern is three hundred and thirty-six feet long, a hundred and eighty-two feet broad, and two hundred and twenty-four Roman paces in circumference. The roof, arches, and sides are all brickwork covered with terracotta, which is not the least impaired by time. The roof is supported by three hundred and thirty-six marble pillars. The space of the intercolumniation is twelve feet. Each pillar is over forty feet, nine inches high. They stand lengthwise in twelve ranges, and broadways in twenty-eight. Their capitals are partly finished in the Corinthian style, and part of them are unfinished. Over the abacus of every pillar is placed a large stone, which seems to be another abacus that supports four arches. There is an abundance of wells that empty into the Cistern. When it was filling in the winter time I saw a large stream of water falling from a great pipe with a mighty noise until the pillars were covered with water up to the middle of the capitals. This Cistern stands west of the Church of St Sophia distance of eighty Roman paces. Comment by Crow 2008: Gilles account of the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayı) presents one of the most evocative descriptions of the Byzantine water supply system; see the translations and discussions of this passage by Byrd (2002) and Gilles (2007), 357-9.