Former Constantinople, today Istanbul, the ancient capital of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire,
and the Ottoman Empire hide numerous cultural treasures, artistic masterpieces and exceptional
architectural achievements. French historian, architect and geopolitician of Greek origin,
Stéphane Yerasimos, has dedicated to the bimillenary cultural heritage of Constantinople a massive
historical album evoking, through texts and pictures, the history of the two thousandth years city
located between two continents, in the place of the crossroads of two worlds. This study brings into
the attention of the Romanian ecclesial and cultural environment the work of historian Yerasimos
by sketching the outlines of the work of restitution of the cultural history of the former imperial
capital on the banks of the Bosphorus.
Keywords: Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul, history, culture, art, architecture

Mircea Gheorghe Abrudan