Your mood is different during the night time, right? So is the city’s mood, its streets’, monuments’, peoples’… A description of St Sophia in 6th century written by Paulos Silentarios* in 563: “Everything glitters- everywhere you cast your eyes, you behold a masterwork. Words are not enough to sing proper praise to this evening awakening. It seems as if a nocturnal sun is illuminating the majestic church.” and it goes on… After 16 centuries, on the night of the Museums 18th of May 2017, we...

Didem Doğan

This neighbourhood takes its name from the castle built in the 15th century by the Conqueror of the City Fatih as a base before he started the siege of the city of Constantin.First of all just before the neighbourhood of Rumelihisarı you will find the Aşiyan cemetery. All literary souls lie here under the same sky. The cemetery of Aşiyan, located between the neighbourhoods of Bebek and Rumelihisari, looks right at the Bosphorus. Aşiyan means ‘home’ in Persian. It is the eternal home to ones...

Didem Doğan

I met De Chirico at an exhibition at the Pera Museum. I found it surprising to find out that his roots are here in Istanbul; they go back to the Ottoman era. His father, born in Greece and originally from Italy, moved to Constantinopolis to work in train construction, and lived in Buyukdere (close to Sarıyer in Bosphorus); his mother is from Izmir, a coastal city in the Southwest. He spent his childhood in Greece, and for the most of his life lived in Italy, a Mediterranean mosaic. One of the...

Didem Doğan

The Sabanci Museum in Istanbul is hosting China’s internationally known artist Ai Weiwei. His exhibition ‘Ai Weiwei on porcelain’ is shown on three floors of the museum with several porcelain objects like broken plates, little stones, columns,… If you are not informed about his activism, his life story, his stance against the hegemonic power, the things you will see at the exhibition might not make much sense to you. On one of the floors you enter a room surrounded by walls on which you see...

Didem Doğan

In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, towards the end of the 19th century, the place in today’s Karakoy known as Bankalar (Banks) Street, named after the word ‘voyvoda’ in the Slav language which means “lord, landlord,” was the place where the first banks as we know them today appeared; the bankers and money-changers in the old trade centers called ‘han’ used to keep the first samples of printed currency, ‘kaime’ in Ottoman, in safes.Today many art galleries have opened their door for...

Didem Doğan

Situated on a hill looking at the Golden Horn and the hills of the Pera district across this mosque is considered as the most important Ottoman monument in Istanbul. The architect Sinan built it during the reign of Kanuni the Magnificent in mid 16th century when the Ottoman Empire was its highest. It carries the name of the Sultan Suleiman and his tomb along with his family’s is located at the same place. The tomb of Sinan is also here; actually the mosque is a complex of schools, baths,...

Didem Doğan

It means ‘in the country’ the word ‘Chora’ and it is both literally and symbolically ‘in the country’. Because it was situated outside the city walls during the time of the Constantinopolis it was called ‘in the country’; the word also refers to Jesus Christ as he is the ‘country’ or the ‘land of the living’. The Byzantine church dating back to 13th century was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman era and the mosaics inside were covered with wooden panels; after the fall of the Empire...

Didem Doğan

As you walk down the Sultanahmet Square you will both leave the tourist crowds behind for a while, also start to enjoy the narrow and colourful streets of Ahirkapi. This neighbourhood takes its name from being the place of the royal mews during the Ottoman era. One of the most beautiful mosques of Sinan is located here, the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque was built by the architect Sinan for the daughter of Sultan Selim the 2nd who was also the wife of the Vizier Sokollu Mehmet Pasha. The place...

Didem Doğan

We start our tour in Tophane with the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque; dating from the 16th century, the mosque of Architect Sinan was made in his late age when he was ninety years old. They say it is the one that most resembles to St Sophia to which he admired his whole life and avoided copying. The mosque is said to be the first mosque built on sea and was named after the Admiral of the Fleet Kilic Ali Pasha. He was originally from Calabria and named Ochiali; he then converted to Islam and became...

Didem Doğan

‘Once upon a time in Taurus Mountains: Sagalassos’, the exhibition at the Yapi Kredi Cultural Centre in Taksim is about an ancient city that maybe few people know. Located in Southwestern part of Turkey, on the Mountain of Toros, the city of Sagalassos was long unknown. There were some travellers in eighteenth century who visited it but the archeological excavations only started in 1970s (led by Marc Waelkens for more than twenty years). The archeological site opened in 2010 and you can...

Didem Doğan

One of the finest example of archeological pieces in Turkey can be found in a silent room away from the tourist crowds. 18 mourning women surround the four sides of a sarcophagus in Archeology Museum of Istanbul; they look sad, some of them weep, some stands still- are they the wives of the King or are they some of the paid women to mourn in funerals as it was custom in Middle East in ancient times? This sarcophagus was found in Sadia in 19th century by Ottoman governors, an ancient city in...

Didem Doğan

Watching the view from the Galata Tower early in the morning is a good way to start your day in Istanbul. You will not only avoid the queue at the ticket counters, you will also enjoy calmly the view from its narrow balcony without the crowds. This medieval stone tower, cylinder shaped with a conical roof, dating from the thirteenth century stands still today at this bohemian neighbourhood offering a 360 degree view of the city including the Golden Horn, historical peninsula and the Bosphorus...

Didem Doğan

Standing at the Bosphorus Shore in Besiktas neighbourhood, the Dolmabahce Palace is a waterfront palace and residence of the last six Sultans of the Ottoman Empire who lived here in the late nineteenth century. It is symbolically important for Turkish citizens as the founder of the Turkish Republic, Ataturk lived here for four years and passed away in this palace in 1938. Every 10th of November you will see people paying a contribute to him and the avenue is lined up with his pictures.Made by...

Didem Doğan

A big underground water reservoir from the 6th century built in the Byzantine era in order to arrange the water supply for the city. It was built during reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian. The cisterns, a Roman-Byzantine invention, were used to store and distribute the waterThat was obtained from the historical waterways; the first of which was the Hadrian’s Pipeline which carried the water from the north of the city in today’s Belgrad Forest. Later the Ottomans built monumental...

Didem Doğan

Another cistern smaller than the Basilica Cistern is located in Çemberlitaş. The Şerefiye Cistern is one of the five other cisterns built in the fifth century during the reign of Theodosius to meet the city's water needs; Şerefiye was named after the neighborhood where it was located during the Ottoman period. The building on this cistern, which was almost hidden due to a mansion built on it for many years, was demolished and opened to visitors after renovation.The cistern is descended by a...

Didem Doğan

Opened in 2004 in the former Karaköy warehouse, now known as Galataport, the Istanbul Modern Art Museum is Turkey's first contemporary art space. It is the most famous museum dedicated to medieval art and was listed in the NYT's '52 places to visit' in 2023. The current version of the museum is a new building, opened in 2023 under the signature of the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano. It is one of the most popular places to visit in the city due to its popular location in Karakoy district...

Didem Doğan