Adrian's Reviews > Amanții din Bizanț

Mika Waltari describes the last months before the fall and the Ottoman siege of Constatinople of 1453 so vivdly that you might think he lived in that period and interviewed the survivors.

A story of true love ending in tragedy between an outcast emperor that returns from the west to his beloved city right before its fall and the daughter of the highest noble.

I am still amazed by the amount of hate between orthodoxy and catholicism at that point in time.
Despite the desperate calls for help of the greeks towards the pope ,only two mercenary companies totalling ~1000 men ,one genovese the other venetian , heed the call and defend the city.
The fact that most greeks view the 'damn latins' worse then the turks and would rather open the gates (which they do) to the latter is also compelling.

Though i refuse to believe it to be true , Transilvanian John Hunyadi is depicted as giving the turks advice on how to storm the city.

Another amzing fact is that there are large numbers of christians in the turkish army including serbian sappers.


The siege is described in a journal-like manner , for me , with an unprecedented level of detail including :
Cannons , their operators , the damage inflicted upon stone infrastructure and inhabitants , repair and molding processes ,
assaults on the castle walls, underground sapper warfare , hand to hand combat and also naval battles.

The author does not sugarcoat the events even one bit - we are also shown the grim fate of the defenders and also non combatants after the fall of the city.


For a history lover (or a romance fan) this book is pure gold.
Looking forward to read more of Waltari's books !