Nicaea

Byzantium1200 reconstruction of what Nicaea would have looked like during the 13th century when the Empire was centered there. It was heavily fortified and it’s population filled out by refugees from Constantinople in 1204.

Nicaea was from the beginning of the Christian history of the Roman Empire a very significant city. One could argue that the Council of Nicaea was, along with the foundation of Constantinople, an event which helped change the trajectory of Roman culture from the one many picture of the classical ancient Romans to the medieval “Byzantine” Romans. It took on extreme importance in later Byzantine history, being a primary target of the First Crusade, and peaking as the capital of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade from 1204-1261. Today Iznik is a smaller town, but, it has many well preserved Byzantine ruins.

Original footage from Nicaea/Iznik provided to me by Engin Durmaz

ANCIENT ORIGINS:

THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA:

THE FIRST CRUSADE:

THE REFUGE OF THE ROMANS:

THE DECLINE OF ASIA MINOR AND THE FALL OF NICAEA:

The entrance of Michael Palaiologos into the freshly liberated Constantinople in 1261, a great moment in its own right, but one which led to the fall of Nicaea as the Romans focused on Europe and rebuilding Constantinople and neglected Anatolia.