Karaköy

Etymology

The word Karaköy apparently combines the Turkish words "kara", usually meaning "black", and "köy" meaning "village". In this case, however, "kara" may have come from the Turkish word "Karay", referring to the Turkic-speaking Jewish community called the Crimean Karaites. Though, linguists such as Sevan Nişanyan contest this theory by claiming that it isn't supported by written sources.

Several theories exist concerning the origin of the name "Galata". The Greeks believe that the name comes either from Galatai (meaning "Gauls"), as the Celtic tribe of Gauls (Galatians) were thought to have camped here during the Hellenistic period before settling into Galatia in central Anatolia; or from galatas (meaning "milkman"), as the area was used by shepherds for grazing in the Early Medieval (Byzantine) period. According to another hypothesis, it is a variant of the Italian word calata, which means "a section of the docks of the ports intended for the mooring of merchant ships, for the direct embarkation or disembarkation of goods or passengers, for the temporary storage of goods and marine equipment", since the neighborhood was for centuries a Genoese colony. The name Galata has subsequently been given by the city of Genoa to its naval museum, Galata - Museo del mare, which was opened in 2004.

History

Roman and Byzantine periods

In historic documents, Galata is often called Pera, which comes from the old Greek name for the place, Peran en Sykais, literally "the Fig Field on the Other Side."

The quarter first appears in Late Antiquity as Sykai or Sycae. By the time the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae was compiled around 425 AD, it had become an integral part of the city as its 13th region. According to the Notitia, it featured public baths and a forum built by Emperor Honorius (r. 395–423), a theatre, a porticoed street, and 435 mansions. Also, the settlement probably was enclosed by walls in the fifth century. Sykai received full city rights under Justinian I (r. 527–565), who renamed it Iustinianopolis, but declined and was probably abandoned in the seventh century. Only the large tower, Megalos Pyrgos (the kastellion tou Galatou), which controlled the northern end of the sea chain that blocked the entrance to the Golden Horn, remained. Galata Tower (Christea Turris) was built in 1348 at the northern apex of the Genoese citadel.

In the 11th century, the quarter housed the city's Jewish community, which came to number some 2,500 people. In 1171, a new Genoese settlement in the area was attacked and nearly destroyed. Despite Genoese averments that Venice had nothing to do with the attack, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180) used the attack on the settlement as a pretext to imprison all Venetian citizens and confiscate all Venetian property within the Byzantine Empire. The kastellion and the Jewish quarter were seized and destroyed in 1203 by the Catholic crusaders during the Fourth Crusade, shortly before the sack of Constantinople.

In 1233 during the subsequent Latin Empire (1204–1261), a small Catholic chapel dedicated to St. Paul was built in place of a sixth-century Byzantine church in Galata. This chapel was significantly enlarged in 1325 by the Dominican friars, who officially renamed it as the Church of San Domenico, but local residents continued to use the original denomination of San Paolo. In 1407, Pope Gregory XII, in order to ensure the maintenance of the church, conceded indulgences to the visitors of the Monastery of San Paolo in Galata. The building is known today as the Arap Camii (Arab Mosque) because a few years after its conversion into a mosque (between 1475 and 1478) under the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II with the name Galata Camii (Galata Mosque; or alternatively Cami-i Kebir, i.e. Great Mosque), it was given by Sultan Bayezid II to the Spanish Moors who fled the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and came to Istanbul.

Ottoman period

When Constantinople fell to Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453, the neighborhood was mostly inhabited by Genoese and Venetian Catholics, though there were also some Greek, Armenian and Jewish residents. The Christian residents of Galata maintained a formal neutrality during the Ottoman siege, neither siding with the Sultan, nor openly against him. One modern historian, Halil İnalcık, has estimated (based on a census from 1455) that around 8% of Galata's population fled after the city fell.

In 1455, the district had three categories of inhabitants: temporarily sojourning Genoese, Venetian and Catalan merchants; Genoese with Ottoman citizenship; and Greeks, Armenians and Jews.

In the 1455 census it is recorded that Jews primarily resided in the Fabya quarter and Samona (which is in the vicinity of present-day Karaköy). Though the Greek-speaking Jews of Galata appear to have retained their homes after the conquest, there are no Jewish households recorded in Galata by 1472, a situation that remained unchanged until the mid-16th century. The composition of the population quickly changed: according to a census of 1478, almost half the local population was Muslim. From 1500 on, Sephardic Jews settled here after they were expelled from Spain in 1492.

Contemporary accounts differ about the course of events that took place in Galata during the Ottoman conquest in 1453. By some accounts, those who remained in Galata surrendered to the Ottoman fleet, prostrating themselves before the Sultan and presenting to him the keys of the citadel. This account is fairly consistent in records from Michael Ducas and Giovanni Lomellino; but according to Laonikos Chalkokondyles, the Genoese mayor made the decision to surrender before the fleet arrived in Galata and relinquished the keys to the Ottoman commander Zagan Pasha, not the Sultan. One eyewitness, Leonard of Chios, describes the flight of Christians from the city:"Those of them who did not manage to board their ships before the Turkish vessels reached their side of the harbor were captured; mothers were taken and their children left, or the reverse, as the case might be; and many were overcome by the sea and drowned in it. Jewels were scattered about, and they preyed on one another without pity."

According to Ducas and Michael Critobulus, the population was not harmed by Zaganos Pasha's forces, but Chalkokondyles does not mention this good conduct, and Leonard of Chios says the population acted against orders from Genoa when they agreed to accept servitude for their lives and property to be spared. Those who fled had their property confiscated; however, according to Ducas and Lomellino, their property was restored if they returned within three months.

Transport

Modern Karaköy is a major transport hub.

The Galata Bridge connects Karaköy with Eminönü and the historic parts of Istanbul; the T1 tram line crosses the bridge, linking Karaköy to Kabataş and Bağcılar. The Tünel funicular runs from Karaköy up to Tünel station at the start of İstiklal Caddesi.

Şehir Hatları ferries leave for Kadıköy and Üsküdar on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, as well as for terminals along the Golden Horn as far as Eyüp.

Cruise ships from Mediterranean ports such as Piraeus in Greece, Dubrovnik in Croatia, Civitavecchia (Rome) and Venice in Italy berth at the nearby Galataport complex.

Commerce

An active business center for centuries, Karaköy remains an important commercial hub for Istanbul. All kinds of hardware, tools, plumbing items and spare parts are for sale in Tersane Street in Perşembe Pazarı (literally Thursday Market). Selanik Pasajı, a shopping center right on Karaköy Square, contains shops specialising in electronic parts. The underpass providing safe passage under the busy square contains more shops.

Karaköy is a popular place to eat especially seafood, with several fish restaurants gathered around the local fish market. More fish restaurants line the underside of the Galata Bridge. Galataport is a large new dining and shopping development along the waterside.

Before the Covid pandemic, Istanbul's red-light district could also be found in Karaköy. However, in 2022 it was announced that the streets once filled with brothels (and where there are still the remains of a synagogue) would be redeveloped as an arts district.

Media

In the Ottoman era many newspapers in non-Muslim minority and foreign languages were produced in Galata, with production in daylight hours and distribution at nighttime; Ottoman authorities did not allow production of the Galata-based newspapers at night.

Sites of interest

Karaköy is a culturally diverse and historically rich part of Istanbul. For example, it contains many churches representing the Latin Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Turkish Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Armenian and Bulgarian rites as well as a couple of Jewish synagogues. The Greek, Jewish, French, Italian and Austrian schools reflect its past cosmopolitan character.

The curvy Camondo Stairs, off Voyvoda Street, were donated by the wealthy Sephardic Jewish banker Abraham Camondo (1785–1873) and built in baroque style.

The large Galataport hotel, restaurant and cafe, shopping and office mixed-use development opened along the water in 2022.

Genoese Palace (1314)

Galata Tower (1348)

St. George's Austrian High School (1882)

Imperial Ottoman Bank

British Seaman's Hospital (1904)

Museums

Jewish Museum of Turkey

Ottoman Bank Museum

Note: The Istanbul Modern, Turkey's first private museum dedicated to contemporary art since 2004, moved to a new location in Galataport in 2022.

Places of worship

Churches

San Pietro and Paolo Church, a Dominican church built 1604 by the Genoese next to their old Dominican convent, and rebuilt 1841–1843 by the Swiss Italian architect Gaspare Fossati, after having been destroyed twice by fire

Sankt Georg Church, built 1675–1677 by Franciscan priests and restored 1908 by Austrian Lazarists

San Michele Church

San Francesco Church

Santa Anna Church

Santa Maria Church

San Domenico Church

San Zani Church

Surp Sarkis Church built around 1360, the oldest Armenian church in Istanbul

Surp Pırgiç Armenian Catholic Church, built 1834, served as the patriarchal seat from 1850 up to 1928, when the Patriarch moved to Beirut

Surp Kirkor Lusavoric Armenian Church (1965)

Saint Benoit Church and Monastery, a complex of church, monastery, school, hospital and orphanage built in 1427 by the Benedictines

Galata Bulgarian Catholic Church, a small church built in early 20th century for the needs of the Catholic Bulgarian community.

Haghios Nikolaos Turkish Orthodox Church

Haghios Ionnis Syriac Church

Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church of Galata (1391)

Education

Österreichisches St. Georgs-Kolleg Istanbul

Deutsche Schule Istanbul (Özel Alman Lisesi) – private school teaching in German

Liceo Scientifico Italiano

St. Benoit High School, founded 1583 by French Jesuit missionaries and co-educational since 1987

Karaköy Greek Orthodox High school

Getronagan Armenian High School, founded in 1886

Notable natives and residents

André Chénier, French poet associated with the French Revolution

Abraham Salomon Camondo (1781–1873), financier and philanthropist

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (1783–1840) botanist and zoologist

Seydi Ali Reis (1498–1563), admiral and navigator