The enchanting beauty of Istanbul arouses my endless admiration. In this crowded and busy city, you can strangely also rest and feel the peace deep in your soul. While taking walks full of wonder and curiosity, you see the traces of history at every step, get lost in its magical atmosphere and feel like you are traveling through time.
Frankly, I'm not sure I have enough vocabulary to describe this city, so let's jump right into the main topic we're going to talk about.
Istanbul is a metropolitan city located at the intersection of the continents of Europe and Asia, with an urban history of 3,000 years and a capital history dating back 1,600 years.
It was used as a capital during the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
This city has hosted different civilizations and cultures throughout the ages, preserved its cosmopolitan and metropolitan structure where people from various religions, languages and races lived together for centuries, and became a unique mosaic in the historical process.
The districts of Fatih and Eminönü, located on the historical peninsula of Istanbul, have been synonymous with Istanbul since the 15th century.
The rapid growth of the city in the 20th century caused a great migration from east to west, and the city's population is now over 15 million.
Let's travel into the city's past and take a look at some of its oldest structures together.
Haydarpaşa Numune Hospital is a historical hospital located in the Üsküdar district. It was opened by Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II as an innovative educational institution in the building where Galatasaray High School was located in 1839, and in 1894 it was moved to its current location.
Between 1903 and 1908, it continued to function as the Military Medical School, and from 1908 to 1933 as the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine.
In 1936, it was transferred to the Ministry of Health and began admitting patients.
Located in the Galata neighborhood of the Beyoğlu district, the Arab Mosque with its high rectangular minaret topped with a pointed cone stands out among concrete blocks. It was converted from a church during Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II's reign.
According to stories, it was the first place where the call to prayer was heard in Istanbul.
The operating license of the Hacı Abdullah Restaurant, which was opened under the name "Abdullah Efendi" on Karaköy Pier in 1888, was given by Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II himself.
In 1915, the restaurant was moved to Beyoğlu, and in 1940 it was changed again with the master-apprentice changing of the guard and took the name Hacı Salih.
In 1958, the restaurant moved to its current location near the Ağa Mosque, and in 1983 its name was changed for the last time, becoming Hacı Abdullah.
Hacı Abdullah is an example of the "Ahilik" tradition, a guild of Muslim craftspeople and merchants, which is almost forgotten today.
Hagia Irene is the largest Byzantine church that has not been converted into a mosque.
According to ancient sources, it was built at the beginning of the fourth century, during the reign of Constantine I.
It was burned during the Nika Revolt in 532, but Emperor Justinian I had it rebuilt. Severe earthquakes in the eighth and ninth centuries caused significant damage to the building.
Hagia Irene, which the Byzantines described as the patriarchate chapel, remained within the Sultan Walls surrounding the Topkapı Palace after the conquest of Istanbul, so it was not converted into a mosque and did not undergo any significant architectural change.
Beyazit State Library's former name was Kütüphane-i Umumi Osmani, which roughly translates to Public Ottoman Library. It is a library that has been serving researchers since 1884 in two historical buildings overlooking Beyazıt Square, near the Bayezid Mosque and the Sahaflar (Bookkeepers') Bazaar.
Ismail Saip Sencer, who was appointed as the library's director in 1896, continued his duty until 1939. At that time, the library started to be known as the "Library with Cats" because so many cats were housed at the library to fight off rat raids.
There are more than a million manuscripts and documents in the library, almost half of which are books.
Istanbul University located in Fatih is the oldest state university in Turkey. Founded in 1453, the first name of the university was "Medaris-i Semaniye ve Fatih Darüşşifası," which means the University of Higher Education and Fatih Hospital.
Approximately 73,000 students study at the university today every year.
Istanbul University has ranked among the top 500 universities in the world since 2006.
Valpreda Apartment
Valpreda Apartment is a seven-story, 14-flat building built by Levi Kehribarcı in 1909. It is one of the first apartments built as residences in Istanbul's history. It was built by German engineers working in the construction of Haydarpaşa Station for Italian stone workers to stay. Today it is more widely known as the Italian Apartment.
It was built with the art nouveau style, which was the dominant style of the period.
Since it was necessary to climb the Yüksekkaldırım Slope, which is a very steep slope with 24% elevation, to reach Beyoğlu from Karaköy, it was unsurprisingly very tiring for people.
In this context, one of the railway concessions given in 1869 to improve the urban transportation of Istanbul was given for the Tunnel, which was built to facilitate transportation between these two points.
The 573-meter (1,879-feet) Tunnel, whose construction started in 1871, was put into service on Jan. 17, 1875, after three years of construction.
The Tunnel, which went electric in 1910, underwent a comprehensive overhaul in 2007.
Ağa Turkish Bath is a three-story building built on 650 square meters (6,996 square feet) of soil.
The first two floors were built as a house and the ground floor as a bath.
The exterior and the top of the bath, or the dome, are designed to receive sunlight from sunrise to sunset. The dome is round in shape and its round glass cutouts allow it to receive light at all hours of the day.
The building was influenced by the classical period that emerged at the end of the 15th century. Many structures built by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II right after the conquest of Istanbul followed this trend.
