Forum of Constantine

The Forum of Constantine was the ceremonial centerpiece of the new imperial capital that Emperor Constantine I began building on the hills of ancient Byzantium in 324 AD. Inaugurated in 330 AD, the forum was dominated by a column of porphyry marble rising over 50 meters — still standing today in Istanbul's Fatih district, known as Çemberlitaş, the 'burnt column.' Its summit once carried a gilded statue of Constantine cast in the image of the sun god Helios; lightning strikes and earthquakes gradually dismantled both statue and column capital over the centuries. Of the forum itself — its colonnaded porticoes, bronze statues, and paved circular plaza — almost nothing survives above ground, absorbed entirely into the Ottoman street grid. The site rewards patient visitors willing to read the urban topography: the circular outline of the ancient plaza can still be traced in the curve of the surrounding streets near the Grand Bazaar.