Photo: TV channel "Tsargrad", Constantine the Great brings the City as a gift to the Mother of God. Mosaic above the entrance to Hagia Sophia

Archpriest Andrei Tkachev on Constantinople

People have birthdays, cities also have birthdays. There are cities where we know exactly the day of laying the first building or fortress wall. And there are those cities about which we do not know this, and we use only the first chronicle mention. This is the case with most cities: they first heard a mention somewhere, and consider this the only appearance in the historical annals.

But we know for sure that on May 11, 330 from the Nativity of Christ, Constantinople, the city of Constantine, was founded. Tsar Constantine, who appeared as the first Christian emperor, himself was baptized just before his death. However Edict of Milan he stopped the persecution of Christians. Subsequently, he also headed the first Ecumenical Council.

Constantine laid new town, in honor of his name. As it is written, narkosha their names on the lands. Alexander poured Alexandria all over the world, and Constantine created Constantinople.

What can we say about Konstantin, if we have all sorts of Kalinins, Zhdanovs, Stalingrads - there were an unmeasured number of these cities. People were in a hurry to name the subway, factories, steamships and so on after themselves. Constantine acted more humble - he named only one city, the capital of the empire.

The Russians called this city Tsargrad - the City of the Tsar, the Tsar's City, the Great City. Compared to Constantinople, all other cities were villages. Today's name Istanbul is the Turkic Greek expression "istinpolin", which means "from the city". That is, where are you coming from - from the city. This is how Istanbul was born.

It is the City of Cities, the mother of all cities in the world. Not only Russian cities, as we call Kyiv. In Russia, in Rus', this wonderful city has always been reverently and reverently treated - the city of monasteries, bookish wisdom, the city of the tsar and Vasilevs. Therefore, exactly one thousand years after the founding of Constantinople, the Russians laid the stone church of the Savior on Bor on Borovitsky Hill, within the Moscow Kremlin. It was, however, destroyed by the Bolsheviks. But it was such a symbolic act - stretching the historical thread from Constantinople to the new Constantinople. From the Second Rome to the Third Rome. Although the Turks had not yet entered Constantinople, Mehmet the Conqueror had not yet broken through the walls of Constantinople, neither external nor internal, they had not yet sung "azan" in Hagia Sophia - but the Russians already felt their continuity and connection. A thousand years later they laid the foundations of Constantinople, the Church of the Savior on Bor, inside the Kremlin walls.

Our ancestors had this feeling - connections and continuity with Byzantium, gradually descending from the historical arena.

So, I congratulate all the residents of Constantinople - everyone working on our channel, as well as all people who have a solid worldview vertical, a connection with heavenly Jerusalem, on the day of memory of the founding of the city of Constantine, on the birthday of the city, which, in contrast to the old Rome, became the foundation of the Byzantine Empire for more than a thousand years. who gave rise to Christian worship. In general, whose influence on world history hard to overestimate. Every May 11, on the day of the city, the memory of Hagia Sophia and Saint Constantinople burns like a fire under the ashes in the bowels of present-day Istanbul…

Now Istanbul, until 1930 Constantinople. In Rus', it was called Tsargrad. The amazing history of the city has more than one millennium. During this period, it has undergone many changes, having been the capital of three empires at once: Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. It is not surprising that he had to change names more than once. The very first name assigned to him in history is Byzantium.

This is one of the few cities in the history of mankind that have an exact date of birth: May 11, 330 (May 24, according to a new style) - on this day, the official ceremony of the so-called “renewal” (as we are currently translating), or consecration, of the city took place , which was headed by Emperor Constantine himself.

Constantinople - the city of St. Constantine - was originally conceived by the emperor as the eastern capital of a vast empire that stretched from Atlantic Ocean to Mesopotamia, as the capital of the state, which was founded in the days of the Republic and from Emperor Augustus became an empire, a monarchical power that united the most different nations and a variety of cultures, but mainly based on two key elements: the Greek East and the Latin West.

First European settlement

Around 680 B.C. Greek settlers appeared on the Bosphorus. On the Asian coast of the strait, they founded the colony of Chalcedon (now it is a district of Istanbul, which is called "Kadikoy").

Three decades later, the town of Byzantium grew up opposite it. According to legend, it was founded by a certain Byzant from Megara, who was given vague advice by the Delphic oracle "to settle opposite the blind." According to Byzant, the inhabitants of Chalcedon were these blind people, since they chose the distant Asian hills for settlement, and not the cozy triangle of European land located opposite.

At first, the city was settled by fishermen and merchants, but geographical position led to the rapid growth of Byzantium, and soon she took a prominent place among the Greek policies.

In 196 BC. e. the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, after a three-year siege, took Byzantium and destroyed it, but soon, by his own order, the city was restored.

The city acquired its greatness when Constantine made it the capital of the Roman Empire and renamed it New Rome, Constantinople.

How was the place for the new capital determined?

Initially, the eyes of the emperor were turned to the shores of the Aegean Sea - to where Troy was located in ancient times. It was there that Konstantin initially wanted to build new capital. Troy in the history of Rome plays a special, unique role. But Troy had long since disappeared by that time, only ruins remained, and these ruins were located in a rather inconvenient place for political maneuvering.

According to legend, Emperor Constantine prophetic dream. Allegedly, it was in a dream that the emperor saw that the city should be founded right here, opposite the ancient and by that time already lying in ruins due to the earthquake, the capital of Nicomedia, and it was on the European coast of the Bosphorus.

The location for the city is in many ways very convenient. On the one hand, it is located at a strategically key point in the entire Eurasian system of trade routes, because it connects both land routes from Asia to Europe and the sea route from the Black Sea region to the Mediterranean. It is very well protected, this triangle, on which ancient Byzantium was located, after which, in fact, we call the Byzantine Empire.

Rise of Constantinople

At the direction of Constantine, the best sculptures, valuable manuscripts, church utensils, and the relics of saints were taken from Rome, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Antioch and other cities of the empire to Constantinople.
Constantine's work was continued by his descendants. Marble and copper columns, which previously adorned Roman temples and squares, were delivered to Constantinople.

The legend says that 60 tons of gold were spent on the construction of the city. Subsequently, the city grew and developed so rapidly that already half a century later, during the reign of Emperor Theodosius, new city walls were erected, which have survived to this day, and included seven hills - the same number as in Rome.

During the reign of Emperor Justinian in 527-565, the largest Nika uprising broke out in the city. The city was substantially destroyed, the Hagia Sophia burned down.

After the brutal suppression of the rebellion, Justinian rebuilds the capital, attracting the best architects of his time. For Constantinople comes the "golden age". New buildings, temples and palaces are being built, the central streets of the new city are decorated with colonnades. A special place is occupied by the construction of the Hagia Sophia, which became the largest church in the Christian world and remained so for more than a thousand years - until the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.

The city is growing rapidly and becomes at first the business center of the then world, and soon the most big city peace.

In Rus', the city was given its name - Tsargrad - the city where the king lives. And the very word "king" may have come from the name of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. The word "Caesar" became part of the title of Roman emperors.

The riches of the city aroused the envy of the peoples surrounding it. In the period from 666 to 950, the city was subjected to repeated sieges by the Arabs.

Capital symbols

Constantinople is a city of secret meanings. Local guides will definitely show you the two main attractions of the ancient capital of Byzantium - Hagia Sophia and the Golden Gate. But not everyone will explain their secret meaning. Meanwhile, these buildings appeared in Constantinople by no means by chance.

The Cathedral of St. Sophia and the Golden Gate vividly embodied medieval ideas about the wandering City, especially popular in the Orthodox East. It was believed that after ancient Jerusalem lost its providential role in the salvation of mankind, the sacred capital of the world moved to Constantinople. Now it was no longer the “old” Jerusalem, but the first Christian capital that personified the City of God, which was destined to stand until the end of time, and after the Last Judgment become the abode of the righteous.

Beginning of the decline of Byzantium

Up to the XI century. Byzantium was a brilliant and powerful state, a stronghold of Christianity against Islam. The Byzantines courageously and successfully fulfilled their duty until, in the middle of the century, from the East, along with the invasion of the Turks, a new threat from the Muslim side approached them. Western Europe, meanwhile, went so far that, in the person of the Normans, they themselves tried to carry out aggression against Byzantium, which was involved in a struggle on two fronts just at the time when it itself was experiencing a dynastic crisis and internal turmoil. The Normans were repulsed, but the cost of this victory was the loss of Byzantine Italy. The Byzantines also had to give the Turks forever the mountainous plateaus of Anatolia.

Meanwhile, deep old religious differences between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches, fanned for political purposes throughout the 11th century, steadily deepened until, towards the end of the century, a final schism occurred between Rome and Constantinople.

The crisis came when the crusader army, carried away by the ambition of their leaders, the jealous greed of their Venetian allies, and the hostility that the West now felt towards the Byzantine Church, turned to Constantinople, captured and sacked it, forming on the ruins ancient city Latin Empire (1204-1261).

In the summer of 1261, the emperor of Nicaea, Michael VIII Palaiologos, managed to recapture Constantinople, which led to the restoration of the Byzantine and the destruction of the Latin empires.

After that, Byzantium was no longer the dominant power in the Christian East. She retained only a glimpse of her former mystical prestige. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Constantinople seemed so rich and magnificent, the imperial court so magnificent, and the marinas and bazaars of the city so full of goods that the emperor was still treated as a powerful ruler. However, in reality, he was now only a sovereign among his equals or even more powerful.

The entire 14th century was a period of political setbacks for Byzantium. The Byzantines were threatened from all sides - the Serbs and Bulgarians in the Balkans, the Vatican - in the West, the Muslims - in the East.

The death of the Byzantine Empire

At the end of May 1453, Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror took Constantinople after a siege that lasted 53 days. The last Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI, having stood for a prayer service in St. Sophia Cathedral, valiantly fought in the ranks of the defenders of the city and died in battle.

The capture of Constantinople meant the end of the existence of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman state and at first was called Constantine, and then was renamed Istanbul.

In Europe and Russia, the city is called Istanbul, which is a distorted form of the Turkish name.

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/93548.html

https://olganechkina.livejournal.com/133364.html

see Constantine.

(I.A. Lisovy, K.A. Revyako. The ancient world in terms, names and titles: Dictionary-reference book on history and culture Ancient Greece and Rome / Scientific. ed. A.I. Nemirovsky. - 3rd ed. - Minsk: Belarus, 2001)

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

CONSTANTINOPOLE

Greek "City of Constantine") was erected on the banks of the Bosphorus on the site of the trading city of Byzantium, founded c. 600 BC as a Megarian colony (Megara is a trading city in Central Greece that competed with Athens). From the end of the VI century. BC. and until 478 BC. Byzantium was part of Persia, from the middle of the 5th century. BC. - as part of the Athenian Maritime Union, from the 1st century. BC. - part of the Roman Empire. In 330, the Roman emperor Constantine I renamed the city Constantinople and made it the capital of the eastern province of the Roman Empire. With the final separation from Rome in 395, Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, later the Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Officially, it was called the New Rome, and in the acclamations - the Reigning or God's City (Theupol). Ordinary Romans called him "the lamp of the world", "the eye of the earth", "the decoration of the Universe." The closest neighbors of the Byzantines - the Rus - christened Constantinople Tsargrad. Even under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (193 - 311), a hippodrome was built in the city on the central square of Augustion, surrounded by a covered marble colonnade. Constantine I magnificently decorated it with statues and erected next to this building the Great Imperial Palace overlooking Augustion Square, porticos, the Senate building, the New Forum for public meetings, palaces for senators, baths, cisterns and other structures. During his reign, the construction of fortress walls began. On Augustion Square there were statues of the goddess Juno, Emperor Theodosius I and a gilded pillar (Milliary) - the “navel” of the whole world, the starting point for the roads of the European part of Byzantium. In the 5th century Constantinople was divided into 14 districts and 322 quarters. The Russian quarter (“Russian ubol” from the Greek embolos – a street with arcades and adjoining shops and houses) was located in the area of ​​the church of St. George, and its end was located near the church of 40 martyrs. Under Justinian I, the church of St. Sophia and an equestrian statue of the emperor was installed. Even under Constantine I, a wide Mesa (Greek middle) street was built to Augustion Square, paved with stone and passing through the forums of Constantine I, Taurus, Anastasia, Arcadia. Near the Amastrian Square, it was divided into two streets, one of which led to the Golden Gate, the other to the Charisian Gate. On both sides of the Mesa towered stone multi-storey buildings with roofed colonnades, which made it possible to hide from the summer heat and downpours. Between the columns were various shops and workshops. On the Mesa were the chambers of the Archbishop of Constantinople, the building of the Senate, the main prison, next to it - the department of the eparch who ruled Constantinople. In his hands was concentrated administrative and judicial and police power: he took care of the city economy and order in the city. The eparch was appointed by the emperor. Bookshops were located near the royal portico, where bibliophiles and philosophers met. In the northwest of the capital there was the Blachernae Palace, built in 1150 and which became the residence of the Byzantine emperors. Part of the territory of Constantinople was occupied by monasteries surrounded by powerful walls, which were laid out of large flat bricks - plinths, fastened with wide light pink stripes of mortar. Inside the monasteries there were churches with domes covered with glazed tiles or gilded copper. The largest were the Chora Monastery and the Studion Monastery. Opposite the Blachernae Palace, outside the city walls, was the monastery of St. Cosmas and Damian. The crusaders called it "Bohemond's castle", because during the crusade of 1096, the monastery buildings were assigned to the detachment of the leader of the South Italian Normans, Bohemond of Tarentum. Among the most ancient monastic temples were the Church of the Savior of Chora Monastery, founded in 413 by Emperor Theodosius II, and the Basilica of John the Baptist (463). Justinian I was credited with the construction of 25 churches in the capital, among which were the Church of St. Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus (527 - 736), Church of St. Irene (532), the church of St. Apostles, Cathedral of St. Sofia. Under Justinian, Constantinople reached its maximum population - 350 - 000 thousand inhabitants. According to the medieval chronicler Albric de Troyafontaine at the beginning of the 13th century. in Constantinople, there were about 500 churches and monasteries. The Russian traveler Dobrynya Andreikovich in his Pilgrim's Book reported that 40,000 priests served in the churches, not counting those who served in the monasteries. Constantinople, spread out like a giant triangle, was protected from two sides by the sea, from the third side - by a double chain of fortress walls for 16 km, built mainly under Theodosius II (first half of the 5th century) and fortified with 400 towers. The Romans called them the walls of Theodosius or the Land Walls, behind which a stone ditch 10 m deep, 20 m wide, filled with water, was dug. There were 10 gates in them - Adrianople, Silivrian, Xyloport, St. Roman and others. 98 (or 96) octagonal, hexagonal and quadrangular towers from 20 to 40 meters high with two defensive platforms each towered above the inner gate. Their foundations went underground at 10 - 02 m. The city could be reached through the Kharisian gates in the northern part of the Land Walls. In the south, near Propontis, there was the Golden Gate, through which the emperor entered Constantinople. They were decorated with green marble columns depicting ancient heroes and fantastic animals. There were 4 towers on both sides of the Golden Gate. A deep ditch was dug outside the Land Walls, filled with sea ​​water from the Golden Horn and Propontis. Wooden bridges were thrown across the moat, which were destroyed when the enemy appeared. From the 8th century the entrance to the Golden Horn Bay was blocked by an iron chain, which rose and stretched when enemy ships approached. Reinforced on strong beams, the chain stretched from the Galata Tower in Pera, a suburb of the capital, to the city walls and was supported on the surface of the water by wooden beams - floats. It could only be broken through by a warship equipped with giant scissors or a strong battering ram. The chain was pulled 5 times to counter enemy ships (in 717 - 718 - against the Arab fleet; in December 821 - during the uprising of Thomas the Slav; in 969 - in front of the danger threatening from Russia; in 1203 - in connection with the threat of an attack by the Crusaders, in 1453 during the siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks). The Justinian Bridge was thrown over the Golden Horn. In the capital - the center of Orthodoxy and the administrative management of the empire - there were all departments, the residence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the imperial court, cultural and educational institutions(see Byzantine school). The imperial residence Philopation was located outside the city walls. Odo Deilski, chaplain french king Louis VII, who accompanied his ruler during negotiations with Manuel I Komnenos in 1147, noted the good supply of the city with food and water, which was supplied through aqueducts to underground storage facilities located everywhere (see cisterns). He also described the slums of the capital, where poverty, darkness and crime reigned. Rhetor IV. Themistius called Constantinople "a vast workshop of splendor". Indeed, the Byzantine capital was the most important center of artistic creativity, famous for its architects, sculptors, mosaicists, and craftsmen. In 1453, Constantinople fell under the blows of the Turks and was renamed Istanbul (Istanbul).

It was the capital of the Christian empire - the successor of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. During the Middle Ages, Constantinople was the largest and richest city in Europe.

Story

Constantine the Great (306-337)

In 324, after victories in internecine wars, the emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, unfolds in the 7th century BC. e. as a Greek colony in the city of Byzantium, the largest construction - the hippodrome was rebuilt, new palaces were built, the huge Church of the Apostles was erected, fortress walls were being built, works of art were brought to the city from all over the empire. As a result of large-scale construction, the city increases several times, and population growth increases significantly due to migration from European and Asian provinces.

Divided empire (395-527)

After the brutal suppression of the rebellion, Justinian rebuilds the capital, attracting the best architects of his time. New buildings, temples and palaces are being built, the central streets of the new city are decorated with colonnades. A special place is occupied by the construction of Hagia Sophia, which became the largest temple in the Christian world and remained so for over a thousand years - until the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.

The "Golden Age" was not cloudless: in 544, the Plague of Justinian claimed the lives of 40% of the city's population.

The city is growing rapidly and becomes first the business center of the then world, and soon the largest city in the world. He was even called simply City.

The first mention of a Turkish toponym Istanbul ( - istanbul, local pronunciation ɯsˈtambul- ystambul) appear in Arabic, and then Turkic sources of the 10th century and come from (Greek. εἰς τὴν Πόλιν ), "istin pόlin" - "to the city" or "to the city" - is an indirect Greek name for Constantinople.

Sieges and decline

In the period from 666 to 950, the city was subjected to repeated sieges by the Arabs and Russ.

During the reign of Emperor Leo the Isaurian in -741, a period of iconoclasm begins, which will last until the middle of the 9th century, many frescoes and mosaics on religious themes are destroyed.

Heyday under the Macedonians and Komnenos

The second greatest flowering of Byzantium, and with it Constantinople, begins in the 9th century with the coming to power of the Macedonian dynasty (-). Then, simultaneously with major military victories over the main enemies - the Bulgarians (Vasily II even bore the nickname Bulgar Slayer) and Arabs, Greek-speaking culture flourishes: science (the Constantinople Higher School is being reformed - a kind of first European university, founded by Theodosius II in 425), painting (mainly frescoes and icons), literature (mainly hagiography and annals). Missionary activity is intensifying, mainly among the Slavs, as exemplified by the activities of Cyril and Methodius.

As a result of disagreements between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, a division of the Christian Church occurred in the city, and Constantinople became an Orthodox center.

Since the empire was no longer nearly as large as in the time of Justinian or Heraclius, it had no other cities comparable to Constantinople. At this time, Constantinople played a fundamental role in all areas of life in Byzantium. Since 1071, when the invasion of the Seljuk Turks began, the empire, and with it the City, again plunged into darkness.

During the reign of the Komnenos dynasty (-), Constantinople is experiencing its last heyday - however, it is no longer the same as under Justinian and the Macedonian dynasty. The city center is shifting west towards the city walls, into the current districts of Fatih and Zeyrek. New churches and a new imperial palace (Blachernae Palace) are being built.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Genoese and Venetians take over the commercial hegemony and settle down in Galata.

A fall

Constantinople became the capital of a new strong state, the Ottoman Empire.

Volkhov - Volga trade route Dvina - Dnieper trade route Other places

An excerpt characterizing Constantinople

It was not difficult to say "tomorrow" and maintain a tone of propriety; but to come home alone, to see sisters, brother, mother, father, confess and ask for money to which you have no right after the given word of honor, it was terrible.
Haven't slept at home yet. The youth of the Rostovs' house, having returned from the theatre, had supper, sat at the clavichord. As soon as Nikolai entered the hall, he was seized by that loving, poetic atmosphere that reigned that winter in their house and which now, after Dolokhov's proposal and Yogel's ball, seemed to thicken even more, like the air before a thunderstorm, over Sonya and Natasha. Sonya and Natasha, in the blue dresses they wore at the theatre, pretty and knowing it, were happy and smiling at the clavichord. Vera and Shinshin were playing chess in the living room. The old countess, expecting her son and husband, was playing solitaire with an old noblewoman who lived in their house. Denisov, with shining eyes and disheveled hair, was sitting with his leg thrown back at the clavichord, and clapping his short fingers on them, he took chords, and rolling his eyes, in his small, hoarse, but true voice, sang the poem he had composed "The Enchantress", to which he tried to find music.
Sorceress, tell me what power
Draws me to abandoned strings;
What kind of fire did you plant in your heart,
What delight spilled over the fingers!
He sang in a passionate voice, shining at the frightened and happy Natasha with his agate, black eyes.
- Wonderful! Great! Natasha screamed. “Another verse,” she said, not noticing Nikolai.
“They have everything the same,” thought Nikolai, looking into the living room, where he saw Vera and his mother with an old woman.
- A! here's Nikolenka! Natasha ran up to him.
- Is daddy at home? - he asked.
- I'm glad you came! - Without answering, Natasha said, - we have so much fun. Vassily Dmitritch stayed another day for me, you know?
“No, dad hasn’t arrived yet,” said Sonya.
- Coco, you have arrived, come to me, my friend! said the voice of the countess from the living room. Nikolai went up to his mother, kissed her hand, and, silently sitting down at her table, began to look at her hands, laying out the cards. Laughter and cheerful voices were heard from the hall, persuading Natasha.
“Well, all right, all right,” Denisov shouted, “now there is nothing to excuse, barcarolla is behind you, I beg you.
The Countess looked back at her silent son.
- What happened to you? Nikolai's mother asked.
“Ah, nothing,” he said, as if he was already tired of this one and the same question.
- Is daddy coming soon?
- I think.
“They have the same. They don't know anything! Where can I go? ” thought Nikolai and went back to the hall where the clavichords stood.
Sonya sat at the clavichord and played the prelude of that barcarolle that Denisov especially loved. Natasha was going to sing. Denisov looked at her with enthusiastic eyes.
Nikolai began to pace up and down the room.
“And here is the desire to make her sing? What can she sing? And there is nothing funny here, thought Nikolai.
Sonya took the first chord of the prelude.
“My God, I am lost, I am a dishonorable person. Bullet in the forehead, the only thing left, not to sing, he thought. Leave? but where to? anyway, let them sing!”
Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, looked at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their eyes.
"Nikolenka, what's wrong with you?" asked Sonya's gaze fixed on him. She immediately saw that something had happened to him.
Nicholas turned away from her. Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed the state of her brother. She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself. No, I'm too happy now to spoil my fun with sympathy for someone else's grief, she felt, and said to herself:
"No, I'm sure I'm wrong, he must be as cheerful as I am." Well, Sonya, - she said and went to the very middle of the hall, where, in her opinion, the resonance was best. Raising her head, lowering her lifelessly hanging hands, as dancers do, Natasha, stepping from heel to tiptoe with an energetic movement, walked across the middle of the room and stopped.
"Here I am!" as if she were speaking, answering the enthusiastic look of Denisov, who was watching her.
“And what makes her happy! Nikolay thought, looking at his sister. And how she is not bored and not ashamed! Natasha took the first note, her throat widened, her chest straightened, her eyes took on a serious expression. She was not thinking of anyone or anything at that moment, and sounds poured out of the smile of her folded mouth, those sounds that anyone can produce at the same intervals and at the same intervals, but which leave you cold a thousand times, in make you shudder and cry for the thousand and first time.
Natasha this winter began to sing seriously for the first time, and especially because Denisov admired her singing. She sang now not like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that had been in her before; but she did not yet sing well, as all the judges who heard her said. “Not processed, but a beautiful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. At the same time, when this unprocessed voice sounded with incorrect aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the experts of the judge did not say anything, and only enjoyed this unprocessed voice and only wished to hear it again. There was that virginal innocence in her voice, that ignorance of her own strengths and that still unprocessed velvety, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.
“What is this? Nikolai thought, hearing her voice and opening his eyes wide. - What happened to her? How does she sing today? he thought. And suddenly the whole world for him concentrated in anticipation of the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos: “Oh mio crudele affetto… [Oh my cruel love…] One, two, three… one, two… three… one… Oh mio crudele affetto… One, two, three… one. Oh, our stupid life! Nicholas thought. All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and malice, and honor - all this is nonsense ... but here it is real ... Hy, Natasha, well, my dear! well, mother! ... how will she take this si? took! God bless!" - and he, without noticing that he was singing, in order to strengthen this si, took the second third of a high note. "My God! how good! Is this what I took? how happy!” he thought.
ABOUT! how this third trembled, and how something better that was in Rostov's soul was touched. And this something was independent of everything in the world, and above everything in the world. What are the losses here, and the Dolokhovs, and honestly!… Everything is nonsense! You can kill, steal and still be happy ...

For a long time Rostov had not experienced such pleasure from music as on that day. But as soon as Natasha finished her barcarolle, he remembered reality again. He left without saying anything and went downstairs to his room. A quarter of an hour later the old count, cheerful and contented, arrived from the club. Nikolai, hearing his arrival, went to him.
- Well, did you have fun? said Ilya Andreich, smiling joyfully and proudly at his son. Nikolai wanted to say yes, but he could not: he almost sobbed. The count lit his pipe and did not notice the state of his son.
"Oh, inevitably!" Nikolai thought for the first and last time. And suddenly, in the most careless tone, such that he seemed disgusting to himself, as if he was asking the carriage to go to the city, he said to his father.
- Dad, I came to you for business. I had and forgot. I need money.
"That's it," said the father, who was in a particularly cheerful spirit. “I told you that it won’t. Is it a lot?
“A lot,” said Nikolai, blushing and with a stupid, careless smile, which for a long time later he could not forgive himself. - I lost a little, that is, even a lot, a lot, 43 thousand.
- What? To whom?... You're kidding! shouted the Count, suddenly blushing apoplectically on his neck and the back of his head, as old people blush.
“I promised to pay tomorrow,” Nikolai said.
“Well!” said the old count, spreading his arms and sank helplessly on the sofa.
- What to do! Who hasn't this happened to? - said the son in a cheeky, bold tone, while in his soul he considered himself a scoundrel, a scoundrel who could not atone for his crime all his life. He would like to kiss his father's hands, on his knees to ask for his forgiveness, and he casually and even rudely said that this happens to everyone.
Count Ilya Andreich lowered his eyes on hearing these words of his son and hurried, looking for something.
“Yes, yes,” he said, “it’s hard, I’m afraid, it’s hard to get ... with anyone! yes, with whom it has not happened ... - And the count glanced at his son's face and went out of the room ... Nikolai was preparing to fight back, but did not expect this at all.
- Daddy! pa ... hemp! he shouted after him, sobbing; excuse me! And, seizing his father's hand, he pressed his lips to it and wept.

While the father was explaining himself to his son, an equally important explanation was taking place between the mother and her daughter. Natasha, excited, ran to her mother.
- Mom! ... Mom! ... he made me ...
- What did you do?
- Made an offer. Mother! Mother! she shouted. The Countess could not believe her ears. Denisov made an offer. To whom? This tiny girl Natasha, who until recently played with dolls and now still took lessons.

Before answering the question: "What is the name of Constantinople now?", You should find out what it was called before.

The roots of this ancient city go back to 658 BC. The island, which, from the height of the flight of a proud eagle bird, looked like his head, attracted the Greek colonists from Megara. They settled on this land, which is between the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Golden Horn. The settlers did not choose the name of their city for long - it was given in honor of the leader Byzant. Byzantium - this decision satisfied everyone.

Almost four centuries have passed, the city began to flourish and already seemed like a tasty morsel for the surrounding neighbors. The Roman emperor kept the proud Byzantium under siege for three years, and only by destroying it to the ground could he completely conquer it. We must pay tribute - by his order the city was rebuilt. Life began to seethe in Byzantium with renewed vigor.

Where is Constantinople located, in which country?

Years and centuries passed imperceptibly, and the year 330 came. Known to all contemporaries, Constantine I (Roman emperor) decided to make the main city of Byzantium the capital of the empire. This changed the provincial center so much that it was impossible to recognize it after a couple of decades. The huge city became famous for its unprecedented wealth and fame, which spread around many neighboring countries. At first there was an attempt to name the capital New Rome, but this name did not take root. The city began to bear the name of the emperor himself - Constantinople. It became the center of world trade. Its history was long - many countries constantly wanted to conquer it. As a result, we can summarize: Constantinople is the disappeared capital of the disappeared state - the Byzantine Empire, but before it was the capital of the Roman Empire. Tsargrad is the second name given to it by the Slavs of Ancient Rus'.

The year 1453 has come. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge during the founding of Constantinople, many lives have been lived... But this year was not easy - it went down in history with the capture of the city by the Turks. It was not easy to achieve the desired, the siege lasted a long time, but it was impossible to withstand it, and foreign troops occupied the city.

Centuries later, Constantinople became the capital Ottoman Empire and was now called Istanbul. But the former culture did not just leave the walls of the city, until today in Istanbul you can find something that reminds of the proud Byzantine times:

• Walls of ancient fortresses.
• Remains of the world-famous imperial palaces.
• famous hippodrome.
• Unique underground cisterns and other attractions.

The capture of Constantinople by Turkish troops, renaming it to Istanbul - the beginning of another, no less interesting history. This is the history of the Ottoman Empire and its capital.

Istanbul today...

Istanbul today is the most populous city in Europe. It has a population of over ten million people. And on Muslim holidays, the same number of Muslims come here. Just imagine a bus station from which buses leave for different cities at intervals of seconds! And they don't leave empty. There are always passengers arriving and leaving back.

There are a lot of mosques in Istanbul. These buildings are worthy of attention. The extraordinary beauty of the building, where you can bow to Allah and take care of your soul to every Muslim.

Like many centuries ago, the city is caressed by the waves of two seas: Black and Marble. Only the surviving walls of the famous Constantinople can tell contemporaries about the glorious history of the powerful capital of several empires:

• Roman;
• Byzantine;
• Ottoman.

How many cities in the world can “boast” of such a fascinating and far from simple history? Constantinople was transformed into Istanbul quite rapidly. The Turkish way of life absorbed the existing one - the oriental look became more and more familiar. Everyone built his own house in a convenient place. The streets became narrower and narrower, blind fences fenced off the inhabitants of the houses from prying eyes. The passages were getting darker and darker.

No longer the capital...

Istanbul ceased to be the capital in 1923 when the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. From now on, Ankara became the capital, and Constantinople still remained a wonderful cultural center of the country for many centuries. Many tourists from different parts of the world flock to the city, where the spirit of emperors, warriors and ordinary citizens hovers.

What is the name of Constantinople now - you ask. Someone calls it Istanbul, someone - Constantinople, someone - Constantinople. It is not the name that is important, but the memory of all those who bravely and faithfully defended it, worked and lived in it before.