Alessandro Vanoli – Istanbul 1453. The Ottoman conquest

The historian and popularizer Alessandro Vanoli, in his lecture entitled Istanbul 1453. The Ottoman conquest at the Sinopoli Hall of the Auditorium Parco della Musica on Sunday, February 8, 2026, retraces the events of May 29, 1453, when Constantinople, the thousand-year-old capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, fell under the siege by Ottoman forces led by the Sultan Mehmet II, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire and the beginning of Istanbul.

With the fall of Constantinople, the centuries-long and grandiose history of a great capital ended and the era of the city that would one day be called Istanbul began. The story of those days, told through the traces of its walls, palaces, and streets, is a way to also tell the thousand-year history of one of the most important cities in the world.

Vanoli's lecture explores the political, cultural, and urban consequences of the conquest: the end of the Byzantine Empire and the city's transformation into an Ottoman capital, represent a watershed moment between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. The date of 1453 resonates deeply with Western consciousness, often seen as the symbolic end of the Middle Ages. This lecture allows us to go beyond the myth, analyzing the actual dynamics of the siege, the military technologies employed - such as the great Ottoman cannons - and the complex diplomatic reactions of Europe at the time. Above all, the meeting delves into the process of transformation and continuity: how a Christian city becomes Muslim, how languages, cultures, and power overlap.

Alessandro Vanoli is a historian, writer, and popularizer.

Photo credits: the Auditorium Parco della Musica official site