Galata Tower

The lower part of Galata Tower appeared during a dispute over this hill. In thirteen forty-eight, Genoese merchants lived in the colony of Pera—the name then used for Galata. Their prosperity depended on seaborne trade, and the cramped district stretched along the shore of the Golden Horn. Above the houses rose a steep, undeveloped slope. From its summit, one could watch the harbour, the strait, and the roads approaching the colony from land.

The Genoese asked to be given the top of the hill. The Byzantine emperor John VI Kantakouzenos refused: he wanted to keep the colony within its allotted boundaries and develop his own shipping. Meanwhile, the Genoese were secretly stockpiling unworked stone. When the ailing John left Constantinople, they attacked Byzantine ships, occupied the slope, and began to fortify it.

The details were later recorded by John himself, a participant in the war, so his accusations against his opponents cannot be considered impartial. However, other evidence confirms the main sequence of events. The emperor writes that the entire colony built the tower on the summit: men and women worked together, and prominent townspeople joined the rest. They connected the tower to the walls, deepened the moat, and where there was still not enough stone, they put up a palisade. This created the main northern strongpoint of the Genoese fortifications.

John demanded that the new walls be torn down and the hill vacated. The Genoese replied that they would accept peace only after the occupied land was transferred to them. Then the merchants of Constantinople raised money for a fleet: the burned houses and ships belonged primarily to them, and they wanted to regain the sea.

The first major expedition ended in disaster. A sudden wind capsized the leading galleys, overloaded with warriors and wooden siege structures. Almost two hundred people drowned. The Genoese left the harbour and towed the emptied ships to their own shore. They expected that after such a defeat the emperor would cede the hill, but John ordered new galleys to be built.

The Genoese decided not to wait for a second expedition. They handed the fortification over to the emperor’s representative and withdrew to the colony’s former boundary. After this formal surrender, John granted them the same hill by his own order. The Genoese received the land and the tower, while the emperor secured recognition that they could not occupy them without his consent.

Today, a museum and a viewing platform have been set up inside the tower. The upper levels and the conical roof have been rebuilt many times after earthquakes, fires, and storms; the Genoese construction is associated chiefly with the lower part of the stone cylinder. Only separate fragments remain of the walls around it. This masonry is what remains of the fortress that the Genoese first built in defiance of the ban, then surrendered, and received back.