The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch/Volume 1/Part 1/Book 1/Section 10
Sect. X.
Constantinople.—Conflagration.
On the eve of Wednesday, the tenth of Teshrin the second, there happened a great fire in Constantinople, which lasted till the eve of Thursday, and burnt the very heart of the city; I mean its Markets and Bezistans (Cloth Halls); spreading on till it reached the District of Kum Capi, the extreme neighbourhood of the Odoun Charshi, or Wood Market; and the Maidan Catir Ghilman, or the Place of the Muleteers. There were burnt, as was computed, about forty, I do not know whether fifty, thousand shops, fifteen thousand large and small private houses, three hundred bakers' ovens, a number of Hammams or Baths, and two-and-thirty Khans or Caravansaries. The Khan Elyusra, or Khan of Paradise, was destroyed, with every thing in it; as was also the Khan Piri Pasha. The Baltajis (Pioneers) and the Bostanjis (Guards of the Seraglio) were unequal to the task of laying waste the places around, until they called out the populace to their aid. The fire whirled about, from spot to spot, like a bird on the wing. Cemeteries, and Fi-Sabil-Allah's, or Charitable Edifices, built of marble, were destroyed in great numbers; and even the tops of the minarets were consumed. We knew where, yesterday, were market-houses and khans and populous mansions; and in this morning's dawn it shewed a desert land, drawing forth the tears of the beholder, and encompassed with a circle of mourners. God protect our country from such calamity!
But instantly they called out the builders to work; and a month's time had not elapsed, when, behold! every thing had returned to its place. The spot alone, nothing else of the conflagration, remained. How should it be otherwise, in this seat of Empire?
On this day I visited the celebrated Church of St. Nicholas, within the Agia Capi, or Gate of St. Kuphemia, which they have made into a Mosque; and afterwards the illustrious Church of Our Lady, above it, wherein is an Ἁγίασμα, or Holy Well, which cures diseases.
On the Feast of St. Chrysostom, I went to Top Khanah, where I hired a boat, and passed over to Kiz Cullesi, or the Girl's Tower, which is built on a small rock in the middle of the sea, opposite Scutari; and we drank of the sweet water of the well there.
From this place we proceeded to Cadi Keui, that is, Chalcedonia; and I visited its church, which is dedicated to Our Lord the Messiah. It is a dome with lofty cupolas, all of stone, and very ancient. Then I returned, by Scutari and Top Khanah, to our place in the Fanar.
On the eve of Sunday preceding the Fast of the Nativity, we said the Evening Prayers in the Church of the Monastery. Three days before, the Clergy and grandees of the District Kum Capi had come to our Lord the Patriarch, and, bringing him a permission from their own Patriarch, invited him to perform mass a second time for them in their Church of Our Lady in the Desert: and this because they were exceedingly rejoiced that the fire we have mentioned, as having raged on all sides, and approached very near, did not injure them; and believing that it was surely repelled from them by the merit of his prayers. We went with them therefore, early on the morning of the said Sunday, by water, in a boat. Every time we passed over the sea that way, we endured many terrors, when we came to the place behind the Seraglio, called Bournou Serai, from the apparent hopelessness of our situation: for the sea is here very terrific, by reason of the black flood of water from the Boghaz, or Bosphorus, into the White Sea. And, indeed, what a number of even large ships have foundered here!
When we arrived at their quarters, they met us in great procession, and a most solemn mass was performed. We staid with them till Wednesday, the nineteenth of Teshrin the second, when we returned to our place.
We asked concerning the Church of the Μαϰαριστὴ, that is, of the Mother of God, the Trine, the Good; whereof an account is given in the Grecian History, which we have translated into Arabic—that they made it into a Patriarchal Palace, and afterwards into a Temple of the Holy Apostles. It is upon a hill, which is above the Fanar and the Patriarch's, and about midway between this district and the Mosque of Sultan Mahomet. It is now a handsome mosque, containing within it many ancient wells.
We had been informed by several persons, that behind the Odoun Charshi, or Wood Market, near the back of the Walidah Khan, was a small mosque, that had anciently been a church, with a high square cupola surmounted with a cross, which is sometimes seen, and at other times hidden from the Odoun Charshi. I did not cease, therefore, till I had found it out, and went to it. The church is still in its pristine state; and I saw the cross. There was with me a company of persons; and we returned much gratified.