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Princes' Islands

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ISLANDS (anc. Dernonesi; Byzantine, Papadonisia; Turkish, Kizil Adalar, or "Red Islands," from the ruddy colour of the rocks), a cluster of nine islands in the Sea of Marmora, forming a caza of the prefecture of Constantinople. They figure in Byzantine history chiefly as places of banishment. A convent in Prinkipo (now a mass of ruins at the spot called Kamares) was a place of exile for the empresses Irene, Euphrosyne, Zoe and Anna Dalassena. Antigone was the prison of the patriarch Methodius, and its chapel is said to have been built by the empress Theodora. In Khalki the monastery of the Theotokos (originally of St John), which since 1831 has been a Greek commercial school, was probably founded by John VI. or VII. Palaeologus, was rebuilt about 1680, and again in the 18th century by Alexander Ypsilanti, hospodar of Moldavia. Close beside it is the tomb of Edward Barton, second English ambassador to the Porte. Hagia Trias (a school of theology since 1844) was rebuilt by the patriarch Metrophanes. On Prote were the monasteries to which Bardanes (Philippicus), Michael I. Rhangabes, Romanus I., Lecapenus and Romanus IV. Diogenes were banished. The islands are a favourite summer resort; four are inhabited and noted for the mildness and salubrity of their climate. Prinkipo ( Pityusa ), altitude 655 ft.; Khalki (Chalcitis; Turkish Heibeli ), 445 ft.; Prote (Turkish Kinali ), 375 ft.; and Antigone (Panormus; Turkish Burgaz Adasi ), 500 ft. The buildings on all the islands were injured by the earthquake of 1894, especially the naval college, and monastery of St George on Khalki, and the monastery of Christ on Prinkipo. The population is about io,Soo, half being Greek. Khalki contains an Ottoman naval school and Greek theological and commercial colleges.

See G. Schlumberger, Les lies des Princes (Paris, 1884); A. Grisebach, Rumelien and Brussa (Gottingen, 1839).