Beyoğlu
Beyoğlu is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920. It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn.
Genoese traders founded Beyoğlu. Beyoğlu's population was mostly foreign and of European background in the 19th century. Events such as 1950s Istanbul pogrom and suburbanization led to high income Muslims, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews leaving for the suburbs, which resulted in decaying housing. Urban renewal projects and gentrification started in 1980s and 1990s. Cultural events such as Istanbul Film Festival, restaurants, and coffee shops were established, while middle-income and upper-income residents returned to the area. Present-day Beyoğlu is one of the main night-life areas in Istanbul.
The district encompasses other neighborhoods located north of the Golden Horn, including Galata, Tophane, Cihangir, Şişhane, Tepebaşı, Tarlabaşı, Dolapdere and Kasımpaşa, and is connected to the old city center across the Golden Horn through the Galata Bridge, Atatürk Bridge and Golden Horn Metro Bridge. Beyoğlu is also home to İstiklal Avenue and Taksim Square.
Name
Beyoğlu continued to be named Pera during the Middle Ages and, in western languages, into the early 20th century. Pera means "beyond" in Greek.According to the prevailing theory, the Turkish name of Pera, Beyoğlu, meaning "Bey's Son" in Turkish, is a modification by folk etymology of the Venetian title of Bailo. The 15th century ambassador of Venice in Istanbul, Andrea Gritti had a mansion in this area. His son Alvise Gritti, who had close relations with the Sublime Porte, also stayed there and was probably the person who was specifically referred to as Bey Oğlu after his father became the Doge of Venice. Located further south in Beyoğlu and originally built in the early 16th century, the "Venetian Palace" was the seat of the Bailo. The original palace building was replaced by the existing one in 1781, which later became the Italian Embassy following Italian unification in 1861, and the Italian Consulate in 1923, when Ankara became the capital of the Republic of Turkey.
History
The area now known as Beyoğlu has been inhabited since Byzas founded the City of Byzantium in the 7th century BC, and predates the founding of Constantinople. During the Byzantine era, Greek speaking inhabitants named the hillside covered with orchards Sykai, or Peran en Sykais, referring to the "other side" of the Golden Horn. As the Byzantine Empire grew, so did Constantinople and its environs. The northern side of the Golden Horn became built up as a suburb of Byzantium as early as the 5th century. In this period the area began to be called Galata, and Emperor Theodosius II built a fortress. The Greeks believe that the name comes either from galatas, as the area was used by shepherds in the early medieval period, or from the word Galatai, as the Celtic tribe of Gauls were thought to have camped here during the Hellenistic period before settling into Galatia in central Anatolia, becoming known as the Galatians. The inhabitants of Galatia are famous for the Epistle to the Galatians and the Dying Galatian statue. The name may have also derived from the Italian word Calata, meaning "downward slope", as Galata, formerly a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453, stands on a hilltop that goes downwards to the sea.Genoese and Venetian periods
The area came to be the base of European merchants, particularly from Genoa and Venice, in what was then known as Pera. Following the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and during the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Venetians became more prominent in Pera. The Dominican Church of St. Paul, today known as the Arap Camii, is from this period.In 1273 the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos granted Pera to the Republic of Genoa in recognition of Genoa's support of the Empire after the Fourth Crusade and the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. Pera became a flourishing trade colony, ruled by a podestà.
The Genoese Palace was built in 1316 by Montano de Marinis, the Podestà of Galata, and still remains today in ruins, near the Bankalar Caddesi in Karaköy, along with its adjacent buildings and numerous Genoese houses from the early 14th century.
In 1348 the Genoese built the famous Galata Tower, one of the most prominent landmarks of Istanbul. Pera remained under Genoese control until May 29, 1453, when it was conquered by the Ottomans along with the rest of the city, after the Siege of Constantinople.
File:Istanbul asv2020-02 img48 Galata Tower.jpg|thumb|left|Galata Tower was built by the Genoese at the northern apex of the citadel of Galata.
During the Byzantine period, the Genoese Podestà ruled over the Italian community of Galata, which was mostly made up of the Genoese, Venetians, Tuscans and Ragusans.
Venice, Genoa's archrival, regained control in the strategic citadel of Galata, which they were forced to leave in 1261 when the Byzantines retook Constantinople and brought an end to the Latin Empire that was established by Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice.
In 1432, Bertrandon de la Broquière described Pera as "a large town, inhabited by Greeks, Jews and Genoese: the last are masters of it, under the duke of Milan, who styles himself Lord of Pera... The port is the handsomest of all I have seen, and I believe I may add, of any in the possession of the Christians, for the largest genoese vessels may lie alongside the quay."
Following the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453, during which the Genoese sided with the Byzantines and defended the city together with them, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II allowed the Genoese to return to the city, but Galata was no longer run by a Genoese Podestà.
Venice immediately established political and commercial ties with the Ottoman Empire, and a Venetian Bailo was sent to Pera as an ambassador, during the Byzantine period. It was the Venetians who suggested Leonardo da Vinci to Bayezid II when the Sultan mentioned his intention to construct a bridge over the Golden Horn, and Leonardo designed his Galata Bridge in 1502.
The Bailo's seat was the "Venetian Palace", originally built in Beyoğlu in the early 16th century and replaced by the existing palace building in 1781; which later became the "Italian Embassy" after the unification of Italy in 1861, and the "Italian Consulate" in 1923, when Ankara became the new Turkish capital.
The Ottoman Empire had an interesting relationship with the Republic of Venice. Even though the two states often went to war over the control of East Mediterranean territories and islands, they were keen on restoring their trade pacts once the wars were over, such as the renewed trade pacts of 1479, 1503, 1522, 1540, and 1575, following major sea wars between the two sides. The Venetians were also the first Europeans to taste Ottoman delicacies such as coffee, centuries before other Europeans saw coffee beans for the first time in their lives during the Battle of Vienna in 1683. These encounters can be described as the beginning of today's rich "coffee culture" in both Venice and Vienna.
Following the conquest of Constantinople and Pera in 1453, the coast and the low-lying areas were quickly settled by the Turks, but the European presence in the area did not end. Several Roman Catholic churches, as St. Anthony of Padua, SS. Peter and Paul in Galata and St. Mary Draperis were established for the needs of the Levantine population.
Nineteenth-century
During the 19th century it was again home to many European traders, and housed many embassies, especially along the Grande Rue de Péra. Reyhan Zetler stated "Pera was considered to be a small copy of the 19th century Europe." The presence of such a prominent European population - commonly referred to as Levantines - made it the most Westernized part of Constantinople, especially when compared to the Old City at the other side of the Golden Horn, and allowed for influxes of modern technology, fashion, and arts. Thus, Pera was one of the first parts of Constantinople to have telephone lines, electricity, trams, municipal government and even an underground railway, the Tünel, inaugurated in 1875 as the world's second subway line to carry the people of Pera up and down from the port of Galata and the nearby business and banking district of Karaköy, where the Bankalar Caddesi, the financial center of the Ottoman Empire, is located. The theatre, cinema, patisserie and café culture that still remains strong in Beyoğlu dates from this late Ottoman period. Shops like İnci, famous for its chocolate mousse and profiteroles, predate the founding of the republic and survived until recently.Pera and Galata in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were a part of the Municipality of the Sixth Circle, established under the laws of 11 Jumada al-Thani and 24 Shawwal 1274, in 1858; the organisation of the central city in the city walls, "Stamboul", was not affected by these laws. All of Constantinople was in the Prefecture of the City of Constantinople.
The foreign communities also built their own schools, many of which went on to educate the elite of future generations of Turks, and still survive today as some of the best schools in Istanbul.
The rapid modernization which took place in Europe and left Ottoman Turkey behind was symbolized by the differences between Beyoğlu, and the historic Turkish quarters such as Eminönü and Fatih across the Golden Horn, in the Old City. When the Ottoman sultans finally initiated a modernization program with the Edict of Tanzimat in 1839, they started constructing numerous buildings in Pera that mixed traditional Ottoman styles with newer European ones.
In addition, Sultan Abdülmecid stopped living in the Topkapı Palace and built a new palace near Pera, called the Dolmabahçe Palace, which blended the Neo-Classical, Baroque and Rococo styles.
During the İstanbul bombings of 18 October 1918, the area suffered.