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in 1868-1944 During the reign of Sultan Abdul Majid II, Istiklal Street in Istanbul was considered the starting point for the project of Westernization of Turkey, where an incident occurred during the visit of the French traveler, translator, writer, and poet Gerard de Nerval (1855-1808) in 1843, in which he said that he did not need any translator From French to Turkish, because the people there spoke French, and if this indicates something, it indicates the culture that was at that time in that region.
Istiklal Avenue - What is Istiklal Street in Istanbul?
here are some descriptions of Istiklal features
- Istiklal Street in Istanbul, also called Istiklal Avenue is one of the first places that come to mind when Istanbul is mentioned.
- it is one of the most visited streets in Istanbul, among young people and tourists. where You can see the intensity of local and foreign visitors to Istiklal Street at any time in Summer and winter, and it is considered one of the most crowded streets in Istanbul,
- it recorded in one of the statistics a density estimated between one million to three million people who visit it every 24 hours, and this varies according to times of the year, working days, and weekends.
- It has an area of about 1.5 kilometers (0.87 mi) is located between Tulin Square in the south and Taksim Square in the north in the historical district of Beyoğlu.
- Most of them are of the architecture of the nineteenth century AD and some of them are from the Gothic and Renaissance periods.
- It offers places for entertainment and fun 24 hours a day with cafes, bars, restaurants, art centers, cinemas, shopping centers, music stores, galleries, huge libraries, historical places, and famous sweet shops.
- The street is open only to pedestrians, meaning that cars and motorbikes are not allowed there. It has a railroad for trams, and it has been since the days of the Ottoman era. which you can take to connect you to points within the street.
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Istiklal Street - Landmarks and sights
Among the most important landmarks of Istiklal Street in Istanbul:
- Cicek Pasaji (Famous Historic Flower Trail)
- Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
- Nevisad Centers
- Saint Antoine Catholic Church
- Hagia Triada Roman Orthodox Church
- French Consulate Street
- Beyoğlu. Fish Market
- Galatasaray historical bath
- Pera Museum
Aya Trida Roman Orthodox Church
It is a Greek Orthodox church in Turkey Istanbul. The church was built in 1880 and is considered the largest Greek Orthodox shrine in Istanbul today. It is still in use by the Greek community in Istanbul. It has about 150 parishes. The church is located in the Beyoglu neighborhood near Taksim Square. The property in which the church is located was a site For a Greek Orthodox cemetery and hospital The cemetery was demolished to build the church Construction began on August 13, 1876, and was completed on September 14, 1880, The church was built in the neo-baroque style.
Saint Antoine Catholic Church
It is the largest and most congregated Catholic church in Istanbul. It is located on the left side of Istiklal Street in Beyoglu. In 1230 the priests built a church around the city of Galata in the name of their founder Saint Francis of Assisi. The Church of St. Francis, was burned twice in the fires of 1639 and 1660 and rebuilt in the same place after each fire, was moved to its new location in Beyoglu after Another fire in 1696 swept its surroundings Reconstructed again in 1724 Built by Italian architect Giulio Mongeri, born in Istanbul in the modern Italian style.
French Consulate Street
When you enter the street, that beautiful building that will attract your attention on the right is the French Consulate building here. French language courses and many cultural events and festivals are held throughout the year. also, behind the Consulate is the Surp Voskeberan Armenian Catholic Church.
Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
Madame Tussauds Museum is considered one of the most famous wax carving museums in the world and has been visited by millions of people since its first opening in London 250 years ago today which is a series of museums located in several places in the world, one of them is on Istiklal Street in Istanbul, located at the entrance to the Grand Pera building on
The right side of the street displays life-size wax sculptures of Turkish and international famous personalities specialized in science, art, sports, magazines, and politics. It is a fun place, especially for families with children, as you will experience beautiful and new feelings with your family, as you will travel on a long journey between the past and the present. With these great characters in it, kids can get valuable information about every character that exists from Leonardo Da Vinci to Albert Einstein, Zaki Morin to Madonna, Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga The family and visitors will have a great time there.
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Beyoglu Fish Market
It is located right next to Cicek Pasagi which is a place where you can have a great dining and shopping experience and at the entrance to the market, there are various stalls selling delicious street food such as stuffed mussels, fried mussels, and kokorek.
Galatasaray historical bath
The historical Galatasaray Bath is located on Istiklal Street in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul within the Galatasaray complex and was built by the second Sultan in 1481.
In Galatasaray Bath, there is a strange story while Sultan Bayezid was wandering around the area where the present Galatasaray High School is located. He saw a hut belonging to one Respected dignitary at the time and by chance, he met Gul Baba also known as Jaafar, an Ottoman poet with Katashi, a dervish and companion of Sultan Suleiman. Gul Baba tells him that he wants to build a complex whose fame will dominate this land for centuries and will contain a large school and a large, vaulted bath. and Sultan Beyazit accepts this desire and ordered to build the complex in 1481 and the tomb of Gul Baba is still in the complex.
Nevisad is one of the landmarks of Istiklal Street
In Istanbul, one of the famous entertainment and nightlife centers at Istiklal Street in Istanbul. It is filled with many bars, fish restaurants, places to eat and drink, with tables to the left and right of the street along its length. It has a very nice atmosphere, especially in summer evenings. It is located behind Cicek Pasaji.
Cicek Basaji- Historic Flower Passage
We also have the flower corridor, which is one of the most important places on Istiklal Street in Istanbul and the most interesting historical place. It is full of entertainment places, restaurants, and famous drinks places. It dates back to the seventies of the nineteenth century, and it has the most decorated buildings on Beyoglu Street. It used to be the Naoum Theater for the Italian Opera and was one of the few cultural centers in both Istanbul and Europe. A new building was built in place of the Naum Theater, which was destroyed by fire in the Great Fire of Beyoglu in 1870. In 1876 the Greek Hristaki Zografos Effendi bought and reconstructed the place of the burned-down Naum Theater. He designed in the lower level 24 shops from French architecture style and 18 luxury apartments are built on the upper level.
Asmalımescit Restaurants
This street is all Restaurants, and it is considered one of the most popular entertainment, eating and night drink centers on Istiklal Street and Beyoglu with its nice narrow streets, cafes with tables spread across the street, Here the entertainment continues until the first morning light were food and drink places and art galleries.
Pera Museum
Pera Museum is one of the active cultural and artistic places in Istanbul. It was opened by SONA Foundation and Inan Kırac in 2005. It contains multi-purpose exhibition halls, an auditorium, an educational room, and a café.
in this article, we learned about Istiklal Street or Istiklal avenue, and the importance of this street in Istanbul as one of the most interesting places in Turkey, which every tourist or resident of Turkey should visit and enjoy in all its places and services and experience the delicious taste of Turkish sweets and fish dishes, and go on a journey between the past, present and future.
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