Bucoleon Research Paper

Question 3: BUCOLEON PALACE
Bucoleon was one of the Byzantine palaces in Constantinople. It was probably built by Theodosius II in the 5th century.
The palace sits on the shore of Marmara Sea. Hormisdas is an earlier name of the place in Greek.The name Bucoleon was probably attributed after the end of the 6th century under Justinian I, when the small harbour in front of the palace, which is now filled, was constructed. According to tradition, a statue featuring a bull and a lion stood there, giving the port its name (βους and λέων are Greek for "bull" and "lion" respectively). "House of Hormisdas" and "House of Justinian" are other names referring to Bucoleon Palace.
Emperor Theophilos, among his other works, rebuilt and expanded
Naturally the large arcade in the middle was reserved for the emperor's use. It is supposed that the monument was built in 380 by Theodosius after his victory over Maximus. At present after the important restorations carried out by the Turks, Yedikule has the following appearance:

From outside, that is in front of the walls and outside the city, looking from the road which passes directly in front, there is a cutting followed by a strip of land (second slope); built behind this by the Byzantines, on a low inclined wail, with two impressive marble columns, there is a gateway beneath an arcade resembling, with its cylindrical shapes and coloured arches, a model castle for children.

The name of this gate is Altin Kapi, the Golden Gate, or Aurea Porta of the Byzantines. The reason for this name is not known. Perhaps on account of its inscriptions in gold, perhaps because it was the most beautiful gate of the city. Byzantine historians relate that there was a statue of Theodosius the Great at this gate, destroyed in the 8th century during an earthquake. A group of four bronze elephants and a cross were destroyed in the same way during the 9th century under Manuel II in another earthquake. During the Napoleonic Wars, the fortress was the prison of many French prisoners, including the writer and diplomat Francois Pouqueville, who was detained there for more than two years (1799 to 1801) and who gave an extensive description of the fortress in his Voyage en Morée, à Constantinople, en Albanie, et dans plusieurs autres parties de l'Empire Othoman, pendant les années 1798, 1799, 1800 et 1801. The last prisoner was held in the Yedikule as late as 1837.[1] Except for the initial 11 and last 4 sentences, all of the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Ivo Andrić's novel Prokleta avlija (translated into English as Accursed and/or