VON BIRKEN

CONSTANTINOPOLIS

Sigmund VON BIRKEN

1668,  13 x 13 cm.

This is a 1668 bird’s-eye town-plan map of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) designed by the German writer and poet Sigmund von Birken and published by Jacob Sandrart (originally featured in historical and geographical volumes like Der Donau-Strand).

During the 17th century, European mapmakers frequently added moralizing, religious, or political commentary to maps of regions under Ottoman control. This specific verse laments the 1453 Fall of Constantinople, framing the city’s conquest by the Ottoman Empire (“Mahomet’s yoke”) as a divine punishment for a perceived lack of Christian repentance, using its fate as a cautionary tale for Western Europe.