Prison of Anemas

The Prison of Anemas is a massive Byzantine substructure built directly into the Theodosian Land Walls at the northern edge of Constantinople. It is generally taken to have been part of the outworks of the Blachernae Palace, which under the Komnenian emperors was the main imperial residence. The building takes its name from the Byzantine general Michael Anemas, locked up here around 1106 after a failed conspiracy against Emperor Alexios I. Later prisoners included Emperor Andronikos I after his fall in 1185 and several deposed patriarchs. The two long barrel-vaulted galleries are empty today, but their cool walls and small light shafts give a vivid sense of medieval prison architecture. The structure lies in the Ayvansaray district and is only intermittently open to visitors.