May 29, 2016 marks 563 years since the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire. It is an event that changed the course of history both in the east and west. The collapse of the eastern Roman Empire, later to become known as Byzantium by the west, who wanted to appropriate and legitimise the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ as the true successors of Rome, sent shockwaves across the known world of its era. The date is etched into the Greek ‘national subconscious’ as dreadful day the queen of cities, Constantinople, fell after 1,000 years.

Constantine the Great was the founder of the city in 324, after the western part of the Roman Empire was rapidly falling to the Germanic tribes invading from the north. The fall of the city, which was essentially the only part of the once mighgty Eastern Roman Empire standing was a natural outcome of a steady decline and corruption that had permeated the life of the empire.

The last stand of the Byzantines against the Ottomans is a story of legends. Sources says 7,000 defenders in the city held off an army of over 100,000 Ottomans sieging the city for nearly a month.

The last emperor, Constantine XI Palailogus is said to have fallen fighting like a mere soldier at the gates of Saint Romanos of the impenetrable lands walls of Constantinople. His death marked the end of the Roman Empire, which had continued in the east after the western part had fallen.