ABSTRACT
Near the great Tower of Mangana, not far from a depot for military ballista in Constantinople, stood numerous monasteries. Nearby was the Palace of Mangana. In this same quarter Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (emp. 10421055) built a xenôn and a monastery. The monastery complex was to be destroyed by the Turks after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, making way for the building of the Topkapi Palace by the conquerors. The fate of the xenôn is not clear, but it may once have been where the Emperor Alexius I Komnenos died from, it is believed, natural causes. “May have been” because the fi fteenth and last book of the Alexiad , his daughter’s memorial to his reign, describes his death in fi lial detail and refers to it taking place at Mangana, after his transfer there from the palace.
