TheCistern ofAetius (Greek:ἡ Κινστέρνη τοῦ Ἀετίου) was an importantByzantine water reservoir in the city ofConstantinople. Once one of the largest Byzantinecisterns, it is now afootball stadium inIstanbul. Since 1928 it has been known asKaragümrük stadyumu, 'Karagümrük stadium'[1][2] orVefa stadyumu, 'Vefa stadium', while in theOttoman period it was known as theTurkish:Çukurbostan,lit. 'sunken garden'.
The cistern is located inIstanbul, in the district ofFatih (thewalled city), in the neighborhood ofKaragümrük, about 300 metres (980 ft) southeast of the Gate ofEdirne (the ByzantineGate of Charisius, later known as Gate ofAdrianople) of thecity walls, alongFevzi Paşa Caddesi.[3][4] It lies at the upper end of the valley which divides thefifth and the sixth hills of Constantinople.[4]
Although according to a late tradition, the erection of the cistern, which lay in thefourteenth region of Constantinople, dates back to the reign ofEmperorValens (r. 364–78), it is ascertained that it was built in 421 byAetius,praefectus urbi in Constantinople in 419 andpraefectus praetorio Orientis in 425, under EmperorTheodosius II (r. 408–50).[4][3] The cistern was confused in scholarship for a long time with the cistern ofBonus or withthat of Aspar: only in recent times has its identification become certain.[3] The giant tank was oriented parallel to one branch of theMese, the main road of the city which connected the Gate of Charisios with the center of the city passing near theChurch of the Holy Apostles,[3] and was supplied by the water main connected to theValens Aqueduct.[3] Due to its huge dimensions, in the Byzantine age the reservoir was often used as reference point to locate other buildings, like themonasteries ofProdomos of Petra, of the Romans (Greek:τὰ Ρωμαίου) and ofMara (Greek:τὰ Μάρα).[4]
After theFall of Constantinople in 1453, the 16th-century French travellerPierre Gilles reported that around 1540 the reservoir was already empty.[5] In theOttoman period, as itsTurkish nameÇukurbostan ("hollow garden") betrays, the structure was used as vegetable garden.[5]
Since the 1920s the structure has been turned into a sports ground, and since 1928 it hosts afootball stadium, theKaragümrük (orVefa, from theVefa S.K. football team) stadium, which is the home stadium ofFatih Karagümrük SK team.[1]
Attempts to identify the location of the Cistern of Aetius started quite late.[4] The cistern has been successively identified with a cistern located near thePalace of the Porphyrogenitus (Turkish:Tekfur Saray), and now disappeared; the cistern located in the court of the littleKefeli Mosque; the vaulted cistern located southeast of theÇukurbostan of the Gate of Adrianople and known asZina Yokusu Bodrumi.[4] The key to the eventual establishment of its location lay in the information that the Cistern of Aetius was located near the monastery ofProdomos of Petra, which was surely in the valley dividing the fifth and the sixth hills: this led to its identification with theÇukurbostan near the Gate of Adrianople.[4]
The cistern has a rectangular plan with huge dimensions, being 244 metres (801 ft) long and 85 metres (279 ft) wide: its average depth lies between 13 metres (43 ft) and 15 metres (49 ft).[3][5] Its capacity was about 0.250–0.300 million cubic metres (66–79 million US gallons) of water.[3] Its walls, 5.20 metres (17.1 ft) thick[2] and partially still in place, were built according to theRoman constructive technique namedopus listatum by alternating four courses of bricks and ten courses of stone, an elegant pattern similar to that used by the cistern of Aspar.[6] It has been hypothesized that this reservoir was used to supply with water themoat of thecity walls, but it is more plausible that it was a central reservoir whence the water was distributed in the city.[2]
Media related toCistern of Aetius at Wikimedia Commons41°01′40″N28°56′21″E / 41.02778°N 28.93917°E /41.02778; 28.93917