Note 774 — Chapter XV · THE WALLS ALONG THE GOLDEN HORN—continued.

The Russian pilgrim, Stephen of Novgorod (Itinéraires Russes en Orient, p. 121), who visited Constantinople about 1350, found a gate near the sea, and beside a Church of St. Demetrius, named “Portes Juives,” on account of the many Jews settled in the vicinity. From the connection in which the fact is mentioned, it appears that the gate stood on the Marmora side of the city, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Vlanga; thus showing how the same name might belong to different gates at different periods in the history of the city. Nicolo Barbaro (p. 817) confirms the existence of a Jewish quarter on the Marmora shore of the city, when he says that the Turkish fleet, finding itself unable to force the chain across the harbour, abandoned the attempt, and proceeded to the side towards the Dardanelles (“de la band del Dardanelo”), and there landed to plunder the Jewish quarter (“muntò in tera de la banda de la Zudeca”). It is possible, indeed, to contend that the Russian pilgrim referred to a gate near the Church of St. Demetrius beside the Seraglio Point. This view does not affect the argument presented in the text.