Prison of Anemas

It is traditionally identified with the prisons named after Michael Anemas, a Byzantine general who rose in unsuccessful revolt against Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) and was the first person to be imprisoned there.

[4] Its interior arrangement, with its spacious upper story, large windows, and westward-facing balcony, suggests a use as a residential tower.

Combined, these factors strongly support its traditional identification with the so-called Tower of Isaac Angelos: according to the historian Niketas Choniates, that tower was built by Emperor Isaac II Angelos (r. 1185–1195, 1203–1204) both as a fort and a private residence, and made use of materials from ruined churches.

[6] The main structure consists of thirteen transverse buttress-walls, pierced by three superimposed brick arches, which create twelve compartments, each 9–13 m wide.

The basement-level compartments have no windows, but the upper levels are lit through small openings in the western wall.

[9] Inconsistencies in the placement of windows, which are partially covered by later additions, as well as other evidence of successive alterations, show that the structure was built and modified in separate phases.

[15] According to Anna Komnene (The Alexiad, XII.6–7), Michael Anemas was the first man to be imprisoned there, and after him the tower and prison were subsequently named.

[18] Even after his capture, however, according to the Alexiad, he remained defiant, leading to a long period of incarceration before he was finally released and pardoned.

[19] The next inmate was the deposed Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (r. 1183–1185), who was imprisoned there on the eve of his public execution in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, on September 12, 1185.

Emperor John V Palaiologos (r. 1341–1376, 1379–1391) imprisoned his eldest son, Andronikos IV, here after a failed rebellion.