Thread by @HKSandham

It takes an amazing wife to let her husband disappear alone into a Turkish knicker district in search of another woman's house. But luckily I have one. This thread is the story of the search for a Byzantine princess's lost palazzo. 👇

The palazzo belonging to the father of Anna Notaras was famously impressive, overlooked the Venetian quarter & had a belvedere tower. It appeared in a sketch of the city made in the 1440s by Cristoforo Buondelmonti.

Thierry Ganchou, of the College de France has suggested its remains are the same as a tower Pierre Gilles dubbed the tower of Eirene in the C16th & was incorporated into a C17th Ottoman building called the Valide Han. Ok, off we go.

Out the grand bazaar & I'm pointed into what I can only describe as the knicker district. I know I've asked directions to 'Mother Shop', but that could be anything. I’ve assume it’s Valide as in Valide Hatun – the sultan’s mother. At this point there are no other tourists around

Then ahead is the Valide Han. The last Englishman who came through here was James Bond on a motorbike in Skyfall. I stay on foot 😎.

I head inside and it looks perfectly safe and tourist friendly. A far cry from Topkapi.

Things brighten up. There's an art shop with a friendly owner who speaks many languages but knows no Byz history. He’s never heard of Anna or Eirene or any other Greek girls for that matter. Still, he kindly takes the mad Englishman along to the room that gives the place its name

Here is the room. Now it’s a tiny, pleasant café where you can drink Turkish coffee, but some 200yrs ago a Sultan's mother died in it, they say. Not sure what she was doing in the knicker district. Looking for a Byzantine ruin perhaps?

Unfortunately they can't help with my hunt for Anna's house & while they show me their impressive view, I can't help but feel disappointed. Then I happen to glance out another window on the supposedly less impressive side and...

There’s the remains of a tower.

I get directed up a back passage (ooh err) and a flight or two of stairs and emerge onto the Valide Han’s rooftop.

It’s just me and the local cats up there but sure it all looks perfectly safe. A pleasant, wet, centuries old rooftop to be standing on alone.

Here's what the search was all about. 500+ years ago it most likely formed part of Anna's grand palazzo with its famous belvedere. She would have had a great view over the Venetian knicker district and across the Horn and Bosporus.

Looking to the right is the window of the room with the coffee & the dead Valide. It felt pretty special to complete the hunt. Not quite up there with Pierre Gilles stumbling upon the Basilica cistern, you might say, but did he get coffee for his trouble?

My thanks to the people of Istanbul who made not only the hunt a success but my whole stay a wonderful time. I'll be back again soon.