Page 43 - Reside Magazine Briggs Freeman

Reside — Fall 2025

Beyoğlu, in the weeping uphill from where the Golden Horn’s waters lap at the
heart of Istanbul, S Karaköy docks to the broad expanse of Taksim Square, the part
of Istanbul historically known as Galata and Pera has always stood
retains its cultural apart. In fact, Pera means “the other side” in Greek, referring to
its position on the opposite shore from the seat of the Byzantine
cachet despite and Ottoman empires.
“We entered a street that curved this way and that, full of nooks and
centuries of change, corners. Every house was a shop offering herbs, bread, meat or clothes,” the
writes local resident Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen observed during an 1841 visit to
the area. “We met people from every corner of the world… What a crowd there
Jennifer Hattam was and what chaos and confusion!”
Now part of the larger Beyoğlu district of modern Istanbul, with
a population of 217,000 people, this area is where Genoese, Venetian, Greek,
Armenian and Jewish communities established themselves over many
centuries, creating a cosmopolitan spirit that lingers to this day.
.
The main thoroughfare of Beyoğlu is Istiklal Caddesi, formerly
the Grande Rue de Péra, a mile-long pedestrian promenade lined with stately
turn-of-the-20th-century stone apartment buildings and still filled
with a cacophony of sights, smells, sounds and languages. Touts call out to
tourists as the conductor of the historic red-and-white tram rings his bell for
the crowds to give way and music wafts down from rooftop bars.
“The whole street is a performance, with a rhythm of its own; you feel
.
like anything can happen when you are walking down I stiklal,” says art
curator Didem Yazıcı, the director of exhibitions at Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat,

Left: The view over Galata from
art museum Istanbul Modern
Right: İlhan Koman’s famed
sculpture “Akdeniz,” 1980,
welcomes visitors to the eight-
story Yapı Kredi cultural center

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