Beyoğlu () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey.Büyükşehir İlçe Belediyesi , Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 12 July 2023. Its area is , and its population is 225,920 as of 2022. It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city (historic peninsula of Constantinople, today known as the Fatih district) by the Golden Horn.
Beyoğlu was historically known as Pera and was originally established in the Byzantine period. It was initially known as Sykai (Fig Orchard) or Peran en Sykais (The Fig Field on the Other Side), referring to the other side of the Golden Horn, opposite to the historical peninsula of Constantinople. The name was eventually shortened as Péra () which means "across" or "beyond" in Greek.
Pera, which also encompasses the citadel and port of Galata, grew significantly in the Middle Ages, when it was a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453. The names "Pera" and "Galata" were used interchangeably in European sources and maps of the medieval period (e.g., the Podestà of Galata was also referred to as the Podestà of Pera), but in the following centuries, the name Galata (today known as Karaköy, a quarter within the Beyoğlu district) began to refer specifically to the port area and the adjacent neighbourhoods within the medieval Walls of Galata, while Pera (Beyoğlu) began to define the wider district, including the neighbourhoods that are further inland and outside of the citadel's walls. The Walls of Galata were largely demolished in the 19th century for enabling northward urban growth, but surviving portions of the citadel's walls still exist.
In the 19th century, Beyoğlu's population was largely composed of foreigners of European origin, including Catholic Levantines, along with local Christians and Jews. Several events in the 20th century have led to the emigration of the district's ethnic and religious minorities, mainly to Europe and North America. These events included the deportation of Armenians during World War I, which resulted in what numerous historians have defined as a genocide; the Law numbered 2007, passed on 11 June 1932, during the Great Depression, which banned foreigners from practicing certain professions in Turkey, in order to increase the number of available jobs for Turkish citizens (the ban was lifted with Article 35 of the Law numbered 4817 passed on 27 February 2003); the 1942 wealth tax during World War II, which was levied with much higher rates on non-Muslims; the Istanbul pogrom in 1955, which targeted the city's ethnic Greek population; the expulsion of Istanbulite Greeks without Turkish citizenship in 1964–1965, after Turkey and Greece came to the brink of war in 1964 over violent clashes in Cyprus (some of the remaining Greeks with Turkish citizenship decided to leave a decade later when Turkey invaded northern Cyprus in response to the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état supported by the Greek military junta for unifying the island with Greece); and the Turkish military coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980 (the latter two were triggered by the political violence between the far-left and far-right militant groups in Turkey throughout the 1970s, which had a devastating impact on the country's political system and economy). In these periods of turmoil and uncertainty, many residents of Beyoğlu decided to move to the less crowded and more secure districts and neighbourhoods of Istanbul. They were largely replaced by low-income workers from Anatolia who moved to Istanbul in the 1960s and 1970s for seeking employment opportunities in the city and began to settle in the side streets of Beyoğlu. This large-scale population movement led to the decay of numerous historic buildings between the 1960s and 1990s, some of which remained vacant for decades.
Urban renewal projects and gentrification in Beyoğlu started in the 1980s and 1990s. The restoration of the district's historic buildings, the pedestrianization of İstiklal Avenue and the reintroduction of the nostalgic trams in 1990, the opening of new restaurants, patisseries and cafés (as well as the revival of historic ones), and cultural events such as the Istanbul Film Festival have restored the previous charm of Beyoğlu, and many middle-income and high-income residents returned to the district, while real estate prices skyrocketed. Present-day Beyoğlu is one of the main centers for cultural activities, leisure and entertainment in Istanbul, with a vibrant night life.
The district encompasses numerous quarters and neighbourhoods, including Galata (modern-day Karaköy), 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. Istanbul's iconic İstiklal Avenue and Taksim Square are also located in the Beyoğlu district.
Etymology
Beyoğlu continued to be named Pera during the Middle Ages and, in Western languages, into the early 20th century, being used in place names such as the Pera Palace Hotel or the Grande Rue de Péra (Grand Avenue of Pera). Péra () means "across" or "beyond" in Greek, referring to its position when faced from the historical peninsula of Constantinople across the Golden Horn.
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 (who later became the Doge of Venice in 1523) 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 Palace of Venice was the seat of the Bailo. That building was reconstructed several times over the centuries, with the last modifications in the 1910s, and currently hosts the Italian Consulate.
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 (The Fig Orchard), or Peran en Sykais (The Fig Field on the Other Side), 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 (reigned 402–450) built a fortress. The Greeks believe that the name comes either from galatas (meaning "milkman"), as the area was used by shepherds in the early medieval period, or from the word Galatai (meaning "Gauls"), 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 (1204–1261), the Venetians became more prominent in Pera. The Dominican Church of St. Paul (1233), today known as the Arap Camii, is from this period.Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 79
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 .
The Genoese Palace (Palazzo del Comune) was built in 1316Bereket Han, Osmanlı Bankası Müzesi by Montano De Marini, the Podestà of Galata (Pera), and still remains today in ruins on Kart Çınar Street parallel to Bankalar Caddesi (Banks Street) in Karaköy, along with nearby 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 (Galata) 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.
During the Byzantine period, the Genoese Podestà ruled over the Italian community of Galata (Pera), which was mostly made up of the Genoese, Venetians, Tuscans and Ragusans.
Venice, Genoa's archrival, regained control in the strategic citadel of Galata (Pera), which they were forced to leave in 1261 when the Byzantines retook Constantinople and brought an end to the Latin Empire (1204–1261) 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 (who had fled to their colonies in the Aegean Sea such as Lesbos and Chios) to return to the city, but Galata was no longer run by a Genoese Podestà.
The first Venetian Bailo of Constantinople, headquartered in Pera, was appointed in 1268 (seven years after the fall of the Latin Empire), during the late Byzantine period. Following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, the Republic of Venice sought to establish close political and commercial ties with the Ottoman Empire, and sent Gentile Bellini to paint a portrait of Mehmed II. It was also the Venetians who recommended Leonardo da Vinci to Bayezid II when the Sultan mentioned his intention to construct a bridge over the Golden Horn. Leonardo designed his proposed Galata Bridge in 1502, which was never built, but a miniature version was constructed almost five centuries later in Ås, Norway, in 2000.
The Bailo's seat was the Palace of Venice, originally built in Beyoğlu (Pera) in the early 16th century and reconstructed several times since then. After having served as the embassy of the French Empire following the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797, and later as the embassy of the Austrian Empire when the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was a constituent land (crown land) of the Habsburg monarchy between 1815 and 1866, the Palace of Venice ultimately became the embassy of the Kingdom of Italy and remained as such until 1923, when Ankara became the capital of the Republic of Turkey and the Palace of Venice became the Italian Consulate in Istanbul.