Beyoğlu City in Istanbul

When thought Beyoğlu, many elements are called such as historic buildings and places of entertainment. In fact, that is a natural condition. The most famous historical building is Galata Tower and it is known by everyone. We will talk about Galata Tower later.

Beyoğlu is located in the opposite of historical peninsula and Haliç which is known as Golden Horn. It is strange but the county’s border is moving on the inside and the inner parts of the Golden Horn are more developed then other inner parts. In ancient times, the name of the region was Pera meaning of which is against of the collar in the Greek language. After the conquest of Istanbul by Turks, the name of the region was changed as Beyoğlu. The name, Pera, was removed from the official correspondences in 1925s and the name, Beyoğlu, was begun to be used and still it is used.

Although Beyoğlu has an important history based on the first ages, there were not too many residential areas until the 16th century. Later, foreigners came to the area and settled in here and today’s Istiklal Street was a residential area of European. After this event, a different ethnic group began to occur in Istanbul. Structures and settlements were built the nearest of the Tunnel- Galatasaray Street in 1700. Then, Beyoğlu has grown with the settlements.

The most important school in the county is undoubtedly Galatasaray High School which has great training and great history. The county contains many historical buildings, especially there are a lot of museums exhibited historical artifacts. Historical Galatasaray Hamam (Turkish Bath), the Atatürk Cultural Centre, the Dolmabahçe Mosque, the German Palace, Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque and Aynalı Kavak Pavilion are only a few historical structures in this county.

If we talk about Galata Tower, we should start with its history. At first during the Byzantine Era, Galata Tower was built as a lighthouse and during 4th crusade this tower was damaged widely. In the next period, it was reconstructed by Genoese as the name of “Jesus Tower”.  After that, Galata Tower has become the largest building of Beyoğlu. Another important feature of this tower is that Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi had flied to Üsküdar from the tower with wings made specially from wooden in the period of 4thMurat.