#basillica

Constantinople, 29 May 1453

Jean Le Tavernier: Le siège de Constantinople (1453), after 1455.

Basillica, or The Ottoman Cannon was a very large-calibre cannon designed by Orban, a cannon engineer, Saruca Usta and architect Muslihiddin Usta at a time when cannons were still new. One of the largest-ever cannons built, played a key role in damaging the Walls of Constantinople in 1453 and subsequently its fall).

Jean Chartier: Siege of Constantinople, Chronique de Charles VII, ca.1470-79.

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant: L'Entrée du sultan Mehmet II à Constantinople le 29 mai 1453 (1876)

After Constantine XI, could no longer pay for their salaries, Orban turned to Sultan Mehmed II (the Conqueror) and proposed Basillica.

“I can cast a cannon of bronze with the capacity of the stone you want. I have examined the walls of the city in great detail. I can shatter to dust not only these walls with the stones from my gun, but the very walls of Babylon itself.”

The behemoth was built in 3 months at a huge casting site set in Adrianople [massively burning wood like in Middle Earth]. Had to be dragged by 60 oxen. The 545 Kg cannonball, could be shot at 1500 m. The cannon killed some of its operators and Orban himself is probably killed by a cannon explosion during the siege [not an unusual occurrence with such artillery].

The heat prevented the cannon from being fired more than three times per day. Ultimately, it lasted all of six weeks before becoming non-functional.

img: The Dardanelles Gun or Great Turkish Bombard, a 15th c. super-sized siege cannon, built in 1464 by Ottoman military engineer Munir Ali and modelled after Orban‘s Basillica.

Orban: The Man Who Brought Down the Walls of Constantinople [pop history]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orban

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilic_(cannon)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardanelles_Gun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin-Constant-The_Entry_of_Mahomet_II_into_Constantinople-1876.jpg

https://www.camrea.org/2017/09/11/orban-the-man-who-brought-down-the-walls-of-constantinople-part-i/