The Fall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 marked the end of the thousand-year Byzantine Empire, as Ottoman forces captured the city after a prolonged siege.
After surviving numerous sieges across a thousand years, the ancient capital finally fell to a new imperial power wielding a weapon its earlier defenders could never have imagined: massive gunpowder cannons.
A Prolonged Siege
Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to Constantinople for nearly two months, using massive cannons to breach the city's famously formidable ancient walls.
The End of Byzantium
The city fell on May 29, 1453, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire, which had endured for over a thousand years as the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire.
A New Ottoman Capital
Mehmed II established Constantinople, later renamed Istanbul, as the new capital of the Ottoman Empire, transforming the ancient Christian cathedral of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
Marking the End of an Era
The fall of Constantinople is widely regarded by historians as marking the symbolic end of the medieval period in European history, and prompted a wave of Greek scholars fleeing westward with classical texts that helped fuel the Renaissance.
