author
Alexander Van Millingen
1840–1915
A lifelong resident of Constantinople who turned the city’s Byzantine past into vivid, careful history, he wrote with the eye of both a scholar and a local guide. His books remain a gateway to old Istanbul’s walls, churches, and monuments.
3 Audiobooks
Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture
by Alexander Van Millingen, Walter S. George, Arthur E. (Arthur Edward) Henderson, Ramsay Traquair
Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites
by Alexander Van Millingen
Constantinople, painted by Warwick Goble, described by Alexander Van Millingen
by Alexander Van Millingen
About the author
Born in Constantinople in 1840, Alexander van Millingen became a noted scholar of Byzantine architecture and history. He served as professor of history at Robert College in Istanbul from 1879 until 1915, and his long familiarity with the city helped shape the close, place-based detail in his writing.
Van Millingen is best remembered for books such as Byzantine Constantinople: The Walls of the City and Adjoining Historical Sites (1899) and Byzantine Churches in Constantinople (1912). These works drew on careful historical study and firsthand knowledge of the city’s landmarks, making them especially valuable to readers interested in Byzantium and the many layers of Istanbul’s past.
Available archival summaries also note that he studied in Malta and Edinburgh and later worked in church ministry before his long academic career in Constantinople. His work is now in the public domain in many places, which has helped keep his writing in circulation for new generations of readers.