City of Countless Names- Kassim Pasha p4

Today, we finish in Kassim Pasha, and next week we move into the center of European life in Constantinople, the neighbohood of Pera.

The Bagnio

Northwest of the Admiralty, behind a second low stone wall, the prison known as the Bagnio securely incarcerates the northern shores population of debtors, thieves and prisoners of war. Inside the cramped enclosure, the prison is a cluster of connected wood and stone dormitories with a windowless central hall running through the buildings. The dark hall as serves a sort of prison bazaar, unscrupulous merchants sell incarcerated a few of the comforts and vices of the outside world, such as wine or raki, by lamp light.

A ball and chain secured around the ankle impedes the movement of most prisoners, but the more notorious criminals, such as the few surviving Janissaries or Greek revolutionaries, live connected by leg chains to a fellow prisoner. The Bagnio’s prisoners come from all nations, but the Russian prisoners of war get the worst treatment. Most of the guards are burly Greeks armed with clubs. They choose which prisoners are chained with which walk freely across the yard. The families of the Bagnio’s inmates often bribe the guard to look favorably on their loved ones and free them of their chains.

The Bagnio used to house three to four-thousand galley slaves (many taken from captured European ships). Roman Aluminat priests from the Genoese settlement in Galata used to visit the slaves to serve however they could.

 In the 1590s, one priest, later canonized as St. Joseph of Leonissa, served the slaves so charitably the Sultan had him arrested and ordered his execution. The guards hung St. Joseph from hooks piercing his right hand and thigh over a smoky fire to slowly suffocate. Before he died, an angel freed Joseph and returned him to Italy.

The Admiralty

At the eastern end of Kassim Pasha’s shore, near the cemetery in Pera known as the Petite Champs De Morts, a small peninsula cuts into the Golden Horn, upon which stands the Admiralty. The Admiralty serves as the headquarters for the Ottoman Ministry of Marine, which administrates the Ottoman Navy, the construction in the Arsenal, and the traffic in its docks. The Kapitan-I Derya or Minister of Marine, Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha, leads the ministry with the experience earned from his three previous terms serving the Sultan in this position.

This handsome building sits so close to the shoreline that it seems to float in the water when seen from far away. Its bright paint and graceful neoclassical style further distinguish the Admiralty from the industrial maze of Tersane west along the shore. The porticoes on its exterior bear decorations unusual among the Ottomans. Halil Rifat Pasha ordered small gilded eagles and lions to be added as decorations to the exterior’s wooden columns, but Nithamiyeen tradition forbids sculpted images. Some sailors mock the decorations claiming they are dogs and seabirds sent by the Russians.

The upper floor contains naval offices and the residence of the Capitan Pasha. Another richly decorated suite of apartments on the upper floor remain ready at all times for the Sultan’s frequent visits to observe the progress of his navy’s construction.