More than a Monument
The Column of Constantine can be read as an analog for the status of the Byzantium Empire throughout the ages. From the foundation of Constantinople to the modern-day landscape of Istanbul, the column has endured through time, but not without traces of past cultural conflicts and the power of greed and destruction. Analyzing the transformations the monument has undergone reveals these conflicts and also shows the varying degrees of cultural importance the monument had.
“A lieu de mémoire is any significant entity, whether material or non-material in nature, which by dint of human will or the work of time has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community.”As we will discover through the progression of this temporal mapping, the Column of Constantine aptly fits the definition of a lieu de mémoire. In fact, the column most likely is a lieu de mémoire of several different cultures as the landscape has been occupied by various different peoples and each of those cultures have transformed the monument.