Tekfur Sarayi (Porphyrogenetus)

Constantinople's last extant Byzantine imperial palace, is just a shell, but it gives a fine idea of what the emperor's residence might have looked like in Byzantine times.

Built into the city walls only a short walk from the Kariye Museum (Chora Church), this Palace of Constantine Porphyrogenetus (called in Turkish Tekfur Sarayi, 'Emperor's Palace') probably adjoined the larger Blachernae Palace. It was constructed during the late 1200s or early 1300s for Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenetus ('Born to the Purple,' ie, to wear the color reserved for the emperor).

After the Ottoman conquest (1453) it served as part of the sultan's menagerie, later as a brothel, then as a pottery workshop and a poorhouse before being abandoned in the later 1700s.

It was closed for extensive restorations in 2006.

Visit the palace when you visit the Kariye Museum and the City Walls. More...

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Imagine it filled with Byzantine courtiers, or elephants, or pots, or poor people, or (ahem) prostitutes. At various times it was!