THE HIPPODROME SQUARE

THE HIPPODROME SQUARE

The magnificent Hippodrome was the sporting and social center of 6th-century Constantinople, where chariot races were the most popular spectator sport.

Even after the Roman Empire began to decline in significance, a monumental racetrack, the Hippodrome, was built in Constantinople, the center of power of the Empire in the East. Although not as large as the Circus Maximus, it was still very large. Historians cannot agree on its original capacity but they think that it must have hosted between 30,000 and 100,000 people.

Constantine the Great, who converted the Roman Empire to Christianity, also had an interest in these races. After the year 330, when he restructured Byzantium as Constantinople, Constantine redesigned the Hippodrome to become one of the most prominent structures in the capital.

The Hippodrome was one of four structures that framed the main square of Constantinople. Just as the legislative, executive and religious powers of the Eastern Roman Empire were represented by the Senate, the Imperial Palace and the Christian cathedral (Hagia Sophia); the institution that represented entertainment was the Hippodrome. For the public, circuses were of comparable importance to bread, and the fates of the players they hired were obsessively followed by their fan base.

The spina of the Hippodrome was decorated with various works of art. In 390, Theodosius the Great brought the Obelisk of Pharaoh Thutmose III from Alexandria and placed it in the spina of the Hippodrome. Among the scenes in which Theodosius is carved into the bottom of the obelisk, he is shown handing out prizes to the winner of a chariot race. The obelisk still stands in Istanbul.

Another work adorning the spina is the Serpent Column erected in the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, which was built in memory of the victory of the Greek city states that united against the Persian army in 479 BC. It was later brought to Istanbul by Emperor Constantine in 324.

After looting during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, only a few remains of the Hippodrome have endured to the present day. During the Ottoman Empire, the German Fountain, a gift from the German King Wilhelm the second, was placed in this square.