News from Byzantium

On this page you'll find links to news stories and information about events related (sometimes quite loosely !) to the Byzantine Empire and its culture

Virtual reality brings past to life
A virtual architecture project at the University of Geneva, recreating the interiors of Hagia Sophia and SS Sergius and Bacchus (Kucuk Aya Sofya) as they were in the early Ottoman Imperial period. The history in this article is fairly garbled, but it's worth a look anyway.
February 2004

Sense of the City: Istanbul
This is slightly off-topic, but it was such a well-written and evocative article about Istanbul that I though it worth including:

" In western cities the sound of the subway or metro is very particular and it stays in your spirit and whenever you hear it in a film, suddenly all the memories of the city wake up in you.

In Istanbul it's the "vvvvoooooot" - sirens of the boats, the "chck" from the chimney, waves of the Bosphorus hitting the quays along with the seagulls and old-fashioned little boats - "putu putu putu" kind of thing. "

August 2003

Space impact 'saved Christianity'
Did a meteor over central Italy in AD 312 change the course of Roman and Christian history?
June 2003

Byzantine mural unveiled in Belfast
Belfast's latest wall painting isn't to be found on a gable wall. Instead it occupies pride of place in Queen's University's Institute of Byzantine Studies.
May 2003

Greek monk group upsets elders
A rock group comprised of Orthodox Monks ... "In contrast to Byzantine chant it was rock and roll accompanied by revolutionary lyrics that struck out at big power, globalisation, drugs, conformity and the new world order."
January 2001

Lost Byzantine palace uncovered
Archaeologists in Istanbul believe they have discovered part of a Byzantine palace that has been lost for centuries.
August 1998