The quarter was connected to the city proper at the construction of the Theodosian Walls, but the Church of St. Mary remained outside of the walls until 627, when Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) built another wall to enclose it.
In the seventh year of his reign (c. 893), Theophano retired to a monastery in the Blachernae suburb of Constantinople.
The Palaiologos emperors largely abandoned it, ruling from Blachernae and using the vaults as a prison.