Arslan Hane, Istanbul

Arslan Hane (Turkish for Lion's shelter; also Arslanhane) was a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox church converted into a secular building by the Ottomans in Istanbul, Turkey.

[2] The structure was located in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Sultanahmet, about 200 m (660 ft) south of the Hagia Sophia, not far from the Column of Justinian and to the left of the Chalke Gate of the Great Palace, both disappeared.

[2] Afterwards, like the nearby Church of St. John at Dihippion,[4] the ground floor of the building was used to house the wild animals (lions - whence its Turkish name, Arslan hane - tigers, elephants, etc.)

[5] At the same time, the upper floor had its windows walled and was used to lodge the fresco painters and miniaturists active in the Sultan's Palace (Turkish: Nakkaş hane).

[8] A representation of the city belonging to the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, another of 1532 painted by Nasûh al Matrakçî, [9] and an engraving in a geography book published in Venice in 1804[10] are the only three extant images of the church, although in the latter the building is represented as already in ruins.

Map of Byzantine Constantinople. The Arslan Hane - not shown on the map - is located in the easternmost part of the walled city, south of the Hagia Sophia and left of the Chalke .
Miniature of the Hippodrome of Constantinople by Ottoman Miniaturist Matrakci Nasuh , appeared in 1536. The Arslan Hane is the large red-orange domed building with a terrace, just left of the blooming meadow (the former Hippodrome site) and right of the Hagia Sophia