Pera

While Constantinople occupied the "Golden Horn" on the Bosphorus, almost more important for Italians in this period was the northern suburb of Pera, which Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus had granted to the Genoese in return for their assistance reclaiming the city from the French-Venetian "Latin Empire" in 1261. From their base at Pera (also known as Galata) the Genoese dominated long-distance trade out of the Black Sea in the 14th and 15th centuries; the massive Galata Tower in that neighborhood—built by the Genoese in 1348—still stands today. Campbell #1065d.