Τhe Byzantine Churches of Constantinople after the Fall[1]
Nr. 245 (2019)
Von Maria Vaiou
The fifteenth century Byzantine historian Krtitovoulos (d.1470) mentions that during the fall the sultan Mehmed II (d.1481) had promised to the soldiers that among the goods to enjoy and take profit if they fought well was the beauty of the churches. Reportedly among the crowds who were trying to escape the slaughter, many peple, men, women and children fled to the churches to make supplication. In Hagia Sophia a crowd of people had taken refuge