Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (65 page)

In the little square beside the Tower, fixed against the remnants of the barbican, is a famous street fountain. In its present form it dates from 1732, but it was originally constructed by Bereketzade Hac
ı
Ali A
ğ
a, first Turkish governor of the citadel of Galata; it still bears his patronymic. It was moved to its present position in 1950 from Bereketzade’s mosque a short distance away when the latter was destroyed. Unfortunately, this charming rococo fountain has suffered badly from being painted.

Behind the tower a steep and winding street, Galata Kulesi Soka
ğ
ı
, leads downhill towards the Golden Horn. Not far down on the left we see the queer folly-like tower that looks so extra ordinary when viewed from the two bridges; it is merely an example of Art Nouveau and belongs to the Istanbul Hospital.

CHURCH OF SS. PETER AND PAUL

Farther down on the right is the extensive domain of the Dominician church and monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, founded in the late fifteenth century by the Genoese. Later it was taken under the protection of France and became the French parochial church in Galata. During the nineteenth century it became the parish church of the local Maltese community, several of whose tombstones are built into the courtyard wall along with an ancient Greek funerary relief. The present church dates from a rebuilding in 1841 by the Fossati brothers. At the rear of the monastery there is a fairly well preserved stretch of the medieval Genoese wall that led up from the Golden Horn to the Galata Tower, with two defence towers still standing.

At the next corner we come to a cross street, which on the left side is called Kart Ç
ı
nar Soka
ğ
ı
. The two buildings facing one another to the left across the side street are Genoese, the one above dated 1314 and the other 1316. The latter is the former Palazzo Communale, also known as the Podestat, the official residence and headquarters of the Podesta, the Genoese governor of Galata. The Podesta retained its original appearance until the late nineteenth century, when its façade was rebuilt during the widening of the avenue below.

Turning right on the side street, which on this side is called Eski Banka Soka
ğ
ı
, we see on the right a huge old building known as the Han of Saint Pierre. This was built in 1771 by the Compte de Saint Priest as the “lodging-place and bank of the French Nation”, as recorded in his bequest. The French poet Andre Chènier was born in an earlier house on this site on 30 October 1762, as noted in a plaque on the façade: next to it are the arms of the Compte de Saint Priest and of the Bourbons.

We retrace our steps to Galata Kulesi Soka
ğ
ı
, which after a few steps brings us to Bankalar Caddesi, formerly known as Voyvoda Caddesi. The present name of the avenue comes from the several banks that were built along it in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The most famous of these is the Osmanl
ı
Bankas
ı
, the Ottoman Bank, the huge building that dominates the south side of the avenue to our left, founded in 1856.

We now cross the avenue and continue straight ahead on Per
ş
embe Pazar Soka
ğ
ı
, the Street of the Thursday Market. On the right side of the street we see two ancient stone houses, and beyond an alley we see two more of them. These were in times past referred to as Genoese houses, but they are actually Ottoman structures of the eighteenth century, one of them inscribed with the date A.H. 1148, or A.D. 1735–6. And indeed the masonry in alternate stone and brick, the pointed arches of the windows, and the general structure could not be more characteristic of Turkish building of the period. The dated building has three storeys, the upper ones projecting in zigzags held up by corbels, two zigzags in Per
ş
embe Pazar Soka
ğ
ı
but four in the tiny alley to the right. This is a fine old building and one hopes that it will be preserved, for at present it and the others on this street are roughly used and are deteriorating.

ARAP CAM
İ
İ

We take the next turning on the right and soon come to a very unusual edifice ending in a tall square tower with a pyramidal roof; this is known in Turkish as Arap Camii, the Mosque of the Arabs, one of the former Latin churches of Genoese Galata. There are many baseless legends concerning the origin and history of this church, but the evidence indicates that it was constructed by the Dominicans during the years 1323–37 and dedicated to St. Domenic. It seems to have taken the place of, or included, a chapel dedicated to St. Paul, by whose name it was also called. It seems to have been converted into a mosque in the last decade of the fifteenth century, probably for the Moors who were resettled in Galata after their expulsion from Spain, and hence the name Arap Camii. The building has been partially burned and restored several times, and in the process it was considerably widened by moving the north wall outwards several metres. Nevertheless it continues to look like a rather typical Latin church, originally Gothic, a long hall ending in three rectangular apses and with a belfry (now the minaret) at the east end. The flat wooden roof and the rather pretty wooden galleries date only from a restoration during the years 1913–19. At that time also the original floor was uncovered and large quantities of Genoese tombstones came to light; these are now in the Archaeological Museum. Fragments of a fourteenth-century fresco were recently discovered in the central apse. On the north side is a large, unkempt but not unattractive courtyard with a
ş
ad
ı
rvan.

We now return to the street by which we arrived at Arap Camii and continue on till the second turning on the right; from this we take the second turning on the left. This brings us onto Yan
ı
k Kap
ı
Soka
ğ
ı
, the Street of the Burnt Gate, which takes its name from the ancient portal which we come to about 100 metres along. This is the only surviving gate of the medieval Genoese town; it once led from the fourth enceinte to the fifth. Above the archway we see a bronze tablet upon which is emblazoned the cross of St. George, symbol of Genoa the Superb, between a pair of escutcheons bearing the heraldic arms of the noble houses of Doria and De Merude.

AZAP KAPI CAM
İ
İ

After passing through the archway we take the next left; this soon brings us out to the main highway paralleling the Golden Horn. A short distance off to the right, just beside the Atatürk Bridge, we see the handsome mosque known as Azap Kap
ı
Camii, taking its name from the Marine Gate, or Azap Kap
ı
, of the Tershane, or Ottoman shipyard, on the other side of the bridge highway. Founded by the Grand Vezir Sokollu Mehmet Pa
ş
a, the mosque was built in A.H. 985 (A.D. 1577–8) and its architect was Sinan. While it hardly equals Sokollu Mehmet’s slightly earlier mosque near the Hippodrome, it is nevertheless a fine and interesting building. Like the mosque of Rüstem Pa
ş
a on the other side of the Golden Horn, it is raised on a high basement in which there were once vaulted shops; the entrance, now rather squeezed by the approach to the bridge, is by staircases under the enclosed porch. The minaret is unusual both in position and structure. First of all, it is on the left or north side instead of the south, doubtless because the sea at that time came up very close to the south wall and the ground would not have been firm enough for so heavy a structure as a minaret. Furthermore, it is detached from the building and placed on a solid foundation of its own, and is connected with the mosque above porch level by a picturesque arch containing a communicating passage so that it can be entered from the porch. Internally the arrangement is an octagon inscribed in a rectangle (nearly square). The dome is supported by eight small semidomes, those in the axes slightly larger than those in the diagonals, while the eastern semidome covers a rectangular projecting apse for the mihrab, with narrow galleries surrounding three sides. The mihrab and mimber are very fine work in carved marble. It appears that the interior was once decorated with fine Iznik tiles, like that of So kollu’s other mosque, but these have disappeared and been replaced by modern Kütahya tiles. Seventy years ago the mosque was in a ruinous condition and the municipality actually proposed to demolish it to make way for the newly planned Atatürk Bridge. A public protest succeeded in saving the mosque and finally getting it restored. This was indeed fortunate, for it is certainly among the more interesting and important of Sinan’s buildings.

Just to the north of the mosque stands the famous baroque, or rococo fountain, of Azap Kap
ı
. Built in A.H. 1145 (A.D. 1732–3) by Saliha Valide Hatun, mother of Mahmut I, it consists of a projecting sebil with three grilled windows flanked by two large and magnificent çe
ş
mes. The façades of the çe
ş
mes and sebil are entirely covered with floral decorations in low relief and with a little dome. For many years in almost total ruin, it has recently been fairly well restored, though unfortunately the fluted drum of the dome has been done in concrete. It is one of the most attractive of the early eighteenth-century fountains.

We now turn back and stroll in the direction of the Galata Bridge, passing a stretch of the medieval Genoese walls that was exposed when the buildings around them were demolished in the 1990s.

A little more than halfway along the avenue between the two bridges we come to an ancient and imposing building with nine domes. This is the Galata Bedesten, or covered market, built by Fatih Mehmet. A nearly square structure, its nine equal domes are supported by four great rectangular piers, and around the outside are a series of vaulted shops. Several authorities have claimed that this building is seventeenth or eighteenth century; however, both the form of the building and the masonry in brick and rubble are obviously typical products of the fifteenth century. One has only to compare it to the Old Bedesten in the Kapal
ı
Çar
ş
ı
, a construction of Fatih, to be convinced that it too is from that period.

Beside the Bedesten but entered from the next turning to the east is a handsome and unusual han. This was built by Sinan for the Grand Vezir Rüstem Pa
ş
a shortly before 1550. The date is fixed by Gyllius, who says that it was built on the foundations of the Latin church of St. Michael, which still existed when he arrived in 1544, but had been pulled down before he left to make way for the new han. It is in two storeys with a long narrow courtyard, from the centre of which rises a staircase leading to the upper floor, in an arrangement as picturesque as it is unique. The lower arcade of the courtyard has round arches, while those of the gallery above are of the ogive type. This building has been very badly treated and is in a sad state of dilapidation and squalor.

Leaving the han, we continue on towards the Galata Bridge; here we might find the streets closer to the Golden Horn somewhat more interesting than the main avenue. (Along the shore at this point there is a ferry service of small motor-boats across the Golden Horn. This is a very pleasant way to pass back and forth between Galata and Stamboul and has been in use for centuries.)