A reevaluation for the Genoese period of the Galata Tower

Abstract

The Galata Tower has been witness to many historical events and has gone through multiple architectural phases over the course of its long life. Its Genoese origins began to receive scholarly attention particularly in the late eighteenth century and especially during the nineteenth century. In the meantime, a general consensus was reached about the history and architecture of the tower’s Genoese period. However, this consensus was actually based on a few primary sources without any comprehensive approaches nor in-depth investigation. The tower’s erroneous name, “Tower of Christ” (Christea Turris), during its Genoese period is perhaps the most widespread assumption in the secondary literature. A first construction by Anastasios I and a heightening around 1445/1446 are further related misconceptions. Despite the popularity of Galata as a research topic, these misconceptions have become anonymous and continuously repeated without being questioned. Moreover, slightly different arguments for the tower were put forward. In particular, when compared to later periods of the monument, the former name of the tower, its alleged Byzantine past, and especially the Genoese architectural identity of the present structure remain rather ambiguous in the light of all the arguments in the literature. For these reasons, this article presents a fundamental reevaluation for the Genoese period of the Galata Tower through virtually all of the primary sources and a small architectural survey. This article shows that there is no solid evidence of the supposed Byzantine period of the tower; that it was named as the “Tower of Holy Cross” (Turris Sancte Crucis) by the Genoese who built it, and its first structural alteration was probably executed by the Ottomans around 1453.