Category: Public
Type: Hippodrome, Square
Location: Binbirdirek, At Meydanı Ave. Fatih
Date: 324-330, 15th Century
Designer: Unknown
Period: Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire
Photos: Pi István Tóth (flickr.com), Istanbul GoTürkiye
The Sultanahmet Square of today stands upon the historical footprint of the ancient Hippodrome of Constantinople, which was initiated by Septimius Severus and grandly expanded by Constantine the Great to serve as the social and political epicenter of the Roman Empire. Originally designed as a vast U-shaped arena for chariot racing, its central spine, known as the spina, was decorated with prestigious trophies from across the ancient world, including the Egyptian Obelisk of Theodosius and the bronze Serpentine Column from Delphi. Following the Ottoman conquest, the area transitioned into At Meydanı or the Horse Square, maintaining its status as a ceremonial public space where imperial festivities and uprisings took place, eventually being flanked by the monumental Sultan Ahmed Mosque in the seventeenth century. Today, the square functions as an urban palimpsest where the preserved Roman monuments and the curved alignment of the nearby buildings continue to delineate the physical ghost of the ancient stadium within the modern city fabric.
