Serhat Goncal 20050340 26/12/2009

FILDAMI CISTERN, IT’S ROLE IN CONSTANTINOPLE

AND IT’S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

THROUGHT HISTORY

Fildami Cistern is one of the four biggest reservoirs of late antiquity in

Byzantium, Constantinople. Different than most of the other cisterns and other open-air

reservoirs in Constantinople, Fildami Cistern is not situated in the historical peninsula

which is covered by Land Walls constructed by Theodosius and at this concept Fildami is

an extraordinary monument, compared with other cisterns inside of city walls, which can

survive until now. Fildami is an open-air reservoir which is situated in the west side of a

valley running north wards from the Sea of Marmara. It is constructed next to the

Magnaura and Jucundianae palaces and nowadays Veliefendi Hippodromme, in Bakirkoy

(the ancient Hebdomon), Osmaniye.

Bakirkoy called as Hebdomon in

Greek or Septimus in Latin, being seventh

roman miles of the Via Egnetia’s road

which is started from the zero point of

Constantinople, the Million, in antiquity. It

was a separate community outside Constantinople, a well watered pleasant seaside retreat

from the city distorted to Hepdoman. It was also called as Makro Hori (long town) at the

end of Roman Empire. The suburb served as an important parade and assembly ground

for the army, and was the scene of imperial coronations in the 5th century. Emperor

Valens built the imperial Palace of Magnaura and the church of St. John in Hebdomon

was also built here. Fildami Cistern is one of the most important monument in Hebdomon

which can survive as mostly protected monument until present days.

The Roman city of Byzantium on the natural boundary between Europe and Asia

was refounded as Constantinopolis in AD 330 by the emperor Constantine. The city

became a focus for imperial patronage and display, quickly acquiring the grand urban

structures expected of any classical metropolis; the fora, baths, colonnaded streets and

hippodrome. The walls of the old city were expanded and within two decades the urban

population began to grow exponentially and new living spaces, suburbs are started to be

created outside the city walls, as Hebdomon. At a time when many western cities

stagnated or shrunk in size, late antique Constantinople expanded and flourished in both

cultural and physical wealth, to provide a secure urban setting for the eastern empire into

the later middle ages. To provide this expansion, city was needed new water supplies to

distrubute into to the expanding city borders in healty way and it is builded lots of

aquaducts, channels, cisterns and open air reservoirs to provide that amount of water to

the city especially at end of the IV th, V th and VI th centuries as Fildami Cistern

Aquaduct of Vallens and etc. However based on historical sources the system maintained

continuity until the end of the VII th century.

Fildami as being one of the massive open-air reservoirs from the late antique city,

build in Hebdomon, played a fundemental role in the provisioning of extanding

metropolis. Three of these reservoirs, Aetius, Aspar and Mocius constructed in the 5th

century lay on high ground within the Theodosian Land Walls. The Fildami is unusual in

that it laid outside the walls, to the north-east of the Hebdomon, its role perhaps then tied

to the development of this palatial suburb, serving the troops and the animals that

musterd before and after campaigns on the kampos. Some of its water may have been

piped to the nearby imperial palace at the Hebdomon. (the water supply of

Constantinople After the late 12th century the long term system had been abandoned as a

result of cumulative seismic damage and after the fall of the city to the Ottomans at 15 th

century (1453), a new system was constructed in the 16th century based entirely on the

closer sources at Halkali and in the Forest of Belgrade but Fildami Cistern is one of the

most permanent monument build to supply the water to the city, most of other water

supplier channels, water bridges, cisterns and aquaducts which were disrupted by

earthquakes or by Ottoman Empire.

Besides we do not

know the exact date of the

cistern; we guess that Fildami

cistern is constructed in V-VI

centuries. This guess is made

by Dr. Tulay Ergil based on the

size of the bricks because the

size of bricks is 330mm square

which help us to suggest a post

Justinianic date and apparent

absence of brick stamps in the

structure suggests a date after

the end of six century.

However the scalloped form of

external and internal

buttressing was an established form of Roman construction and was recommended by

Vitruvius and is thus unlikely to be a significant chronological guide, Water Supply of

Constantniople, James Crow). The walls are bonded from the bottom to the top with

seven stones and seven bricks in a row.

It stands on the west side of a valley running north wards from the Sea of

Marmara. Its west walla is buried

within the valley side, and it was

necessary to buttress the wall

internally agains the weight of the

hillside. This butressing was

achieved, as is not uncommon in

Roman and Byzantine cisterns and

retaining walls, by buildind it on a

scalloped with nineteen niches, creating a series of projecting butresses, bringing the

thickness of the wall to 7.0m.(the Water Supply of Constantinople, James Crow)

Fildami is an open-air reservoir of the early

Byzantine Empire, 1500m far away from the

coast of Marmara Sea and the west side of

Cirpici stream (Istanbul Ansiklopedisi, Page

318). The measure of the cistern is 127x76m

and the walls are visible to a height of about ten meter and its depth is measured as 11m.

Therefore it is estimating that its first shape is deeper than nowadays form. (Istanbul

Ansiklopedesi, Page: 318). In total area it is somewhat smaller than the other open

reservoirs within the Land Walls. It is only 1.000m2 larger in area than the Yerebatan

Cistern.

We do not know how the Fildami was

supplied. It is situated at a relatively low

elevation and a number of springs further up

the valley which provide sufficient discharge.

Alternatively, a channel might have been

built, branching from the long distance supply

line coming from Thrace. (Resource I,

page:134)

One of the most interesting things of the

reservoir is the piezometric tower on the

exterior of the south-west corner. The

piezometric tower is a giant water tank and is

used to restabilish the nominal value of

hydraulic pressure in an aqueduct by releasing

water when the value of the pressure drop below

a certain limit. The tower was a double-shell

structure, with the outer casing of the tower

separated from an internal spiral staircase by a space within which the water from the

reservoir could flow. From within the tower it was possible to see outflow channels

leading away from the reservoir in different directions. The tower served to regulate the

water level and control distribution from the

multiple outflow channels, presumable each

with a different destination. There was a

single inflow channel from the reservoir into

the tower, situated at a low level. (Resource

II)

There is not a common knowledge where the name of “Fildami” came as the

name of the open air reservoir or cistern. However historicians think that elephants of the

army and the palace of Ottoman Empire are kept in this field and that’s why the name of

the cistern is putted as Fildami.(Resource VI) Therefore Fildami Cistern is also known as

Hebdomon Cistern in some sources as well.(Resource V)

Fildami is not used for anything for long years until the 1998. Between the years 1998 to

2003, Fildami was used as exhibition center in which lots of domestic and international

famous groups like The Blue Brothers, Roger Glover, Dream Theater, and singers like

Haluk Levent, Teoman and Ibrahim Tatlises display their perfomance. However in 2003

the concert programmes were cancelled

because of the damage of high volume

to the walls of the cistern and because

of the disturbence to the horses in

Veliefendi Hippodrrome. Nowadays,

Fildami Cistern is used as recreational

area for the native people of Bakirkoy under the control of Bakirkoy Municapilaty. Lots

of people without considering any age differences, realize their morning gym, running on

to the

tartan

runway which builded in to the cistern even in some of my visit of Fildami Cistern I saw

Turkish Youth Athletics Team working in Fildami Cistern. The green area inside of the

cistern is used as football pitch.

Like other historical places Fildami is also facing with some problemes like

garbages and damages from some of the

However there is no a desperate situation of Fildami cistern comparing with other

historical areas, because eventhough Fildami is facing with some problemes, the

community is conscious about the cistern. We can see this consciousness obviously from

the effect of the cistern to its environment, most of the name coffees, buffets, and

buildings are carrying the same name with the cistern.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

-The water supply of constantinople, James CROW, Jonathan BARDILL and Richard

BAYLISS (resource I)

- http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/projects/longwalls/Water/context.htm (resource II)

-TC Anitlar ve Muzeler Genel Mudurlugu 19. Arastirma Sonuclari Toplantisi 2. Cilt

(Resource III)

- Istanbul Ansiklopedisi (Resource IV)

-Yurt Ansiklopedisi (Resource V)

-http://www.turkcebilgi.com/fildam%C4%B1_sarn%C4%B1c%C4%B1/ansiklopedi

(Resource VI)

-Google Earth