A medieval city in transformation: A GIS-based documentation, identification, and assessment of the Byzantine heritage in Trebizond (Trabzon)

Date

2026-7-30

Author

Sur, Selin

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Trebizond (modern Trabzon) is one of the longest continuously inhabited cities on the Black Sea coast of Türkiye, with origins dating back to at least the Hellenistic period (330–30 BCE). It is also among the rare urban centers that seamlessly transitioned through the ‘Dark Ages’ (7th–9th centuries) into modern times without major settlement interruption. After the capture of Constantinople (Istanbul) by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the city became the capital of one of the three Byzantine splinter states, namely the Empire of Trebizond, which maintained its independence until the Ottoman conquest in 1461. Trebizond demonstrated outstanding architectural vitality in the Late Byzantine period, under the rule of the Grand Komnenoi. However, from the 19th century onwards, and particularly with the rapid urbanization after the 1970s, Trebizond’s urban landscape has undergone significant transformation, leading to the neglect and destruction of its heritage. The Byzantine heritage of Trebizond is particularly vulnerable to these transformations for political and ideological reasons. This heritage was comprehensively documented only between 1957–1979 by British scholars Anthony Bryer and David Winfield and published in their seminal work The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos in 1985. This thesis aims to document, identify, and assess the Byzantine architectural and urban heritage of the historic city of Trebizond, now part of the Ortahisar District, within the framework of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach adopted by UNESCO in 2011. It employs an urban archaeology approach based on the methodology devised by the Greek conservation architect and architectural historian, Charalambos Bouras, for studying medieval cities. This methodology incorporates archaeological excavation data and comprises: (i) the integration of all surveys into a single plan of the present situation, (ii) the reconstruction of the urban fabric of different periods, (iii) the identification of the functions and uses of architectural and urban contexts based on movable finds related to production, (iv) the complementary interpretation of material and literary evidence, and (v) the investigation of urban growth and its historical development. This approach, applied to Trebizond, integrates archaeological evidence with written sources, visual records, cartographic materials, and fieldwork data (2022–2026). These datasets were analyzed within a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment, enabling diachronic mapping, architectural and spatial analyses. The results demonstrate that Trebizond’s Byzantine urban landscape was considerably more extensive and spatially complex than previously suggested. This dissertation identified and documented 39 extant and 65 lost heritage assets. The fortifications were systematically documented and analyzed, yielding new hypotheses regarding the location and chronology of the gates. Previous identifications and mappings of buildings and roads were assessed, and, in some cases, sites were reidentified and remapped by cross-referencing available sources. Several of the previously ‘anonymous’ churches were identified. In addition, revised chronologies were proposed for the Churches of Panagia Chrysokephalos (Ortahisar Fatih Mosque) and St. Eugenios (Yeni Cuma Mosque). Some sites were successfully mapped for the first time, and new sites were introduced to scholarship. The Venetian settlements were identified and integrated into the map of Trebizond’s urban development from Antiquity to the Late Medieval period. Finally, a general conservation strategy was proposed within the HUL framework to address specific conservation issues concerning the Byzantine heritage in Trebizond.

Subject Keywords

Trebizond/Trabzon, Middle Ages, Byzantine heritage, conservation, GIS

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/120674

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Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis