The Roman Wall is the popular but incorrect name for an early Ottoman-era architectural monument in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Part of a 16th or 17th-century Islamic religious building, it now stands in the middle of a small marketplace in the Lozenets neighbourhood.
The Roman Wall is a rectangular structure of straight rows of bricks and stones. It exhibits a characteristic Ottoman construction method of surrounding the large cut stones with sets of bricks. The wall is situated with an east–west orientation and features two windows, with a mihrab niche in between. A notched brick cornice decorates the top of the wall.
The Roman Wall was built in the 16th or 17th century, the time of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. The wall's exact purpose is unclear, though it is agreed that it performed an Islamic religious function. It may either be the preserved part of an eminent Ottoman Turk's tomb, or it may have formed part of a namazgâh, an open-air religious structure where the imam would perform a prayer for those embarking on the Hajj.
In the late 19th century, after the reestablishment of the Principality of Bulgaria in 1878, the Old Wall remained as a lone marker in the abandoned Turkish graveyard. In 1957, the wall underwent a reconstruction and was enlisted as a monument of culture.
References:The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger.