On 29 May 1453, after weeks of siege, Ottoman forces under Mehmed II captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire. The defenders were vastly outnumbered: a small Byzantine-Latin garrison, aided by volunteers such as Giovanni Giustiniani, faced an Ottoman army supported by heavy artillery. The most famous guns—often linked to the founder Orban—did not magically “blow up” the walls in one shot, but they battered masonry day after day, forcing constant repairs with rubble, timber, and earth

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