From Taksim to Şişli on the Trail of the Constitution and the Republic

At this stop you will read not the square itself but the monument at its centre. When you come up from the metro or out of İstiklal Avenue, go straight to the Republic Monument; it stands in the middle of the pedestrian area and can be walked around on all four sides. Designed by the Italian sculptor Pietro Canonica, the monument was begun in 1925, completed in two and a half years and opened on 8 August 1928. The base and the surrounding layout were prepared by Giulio Mongeri. The eleven-metre structure weighs eighty-four tons; the bronze figures are set inside an arched base of pink and green marble, and all the parts were shipped from Rome to Istanbul. The cost was met by public donations; the largest gift came from the banker Berç Keresteciyan.

Go first to the north face, the side that looks towards Cumhuriyet Avenue. Here Mustafa Kemal is shown in uniform, at the head of his soldiers, as the commander of the War of Independence. Then walk around the monument to the south face, which looks towards İstiklal Avenue. On this side Atatürk is in civilian dress; İsmet İnönü and Fevzi Çakmak stand beside him, soldiers and citizens surround them, and the scene tells of the founding of the young Republic. Among the figures in the background are representatives symbolising the Soviet assistance received during the War of Independence; the sources differ on the identity of these figures, so we do not give their names here. On the two narrow side faces there is one soldier statue each, and in the medallions above them two portraits of women. The arched form of the base recalls a square fountain; Canonica's first design was indeed conceived as a fountain. Step close to the base to see the expressions on the faces and the folds of the clothing, then step back a few paces and frame the monument as a whole. Morning light falls flat on the south face; the north face reads better in the afternoon. On national holidays the area around the monument is reserved for ceremonies, so keep this stop short on those days.

When you have finished with the monument, walk to Gezi Park on the north-east side of the square. The park opened in 1943 and counts as the first park built in Istanbul in the Republican era; on its site stood the Artillery Barracks of 1806, demolished in 1940 in line with Henri Prost's plan. Climb the park's marble steps and follow the tree-lined path; at the far end of the park the long facade of Taşkışla comes into view. Built between 1846 and 1852 to a design by the English architect William James Smith as a hospital for the military medical school, Taşkışla was turned into barracks in 1860 and is today the Faculty of Architecture of Istanbul Technical University; look at the eight-columned entrance on its west facade. The cable car that descends to Maçka from the station beside Taşkışla opened on 11 April 1993 and is Istanbul's first cable car line; the 347-metre line covers a height difference of forty-two metres in about three and a half minutes and runs with four cabins of six passengers each. From the cabin look at the trees of the Maçka valley and towards Beşiktaş; if you prefer to walk, the slope that drops into the valley in front of Taşkışla takes you to the same park. When you reach the bottom you are already inside Maçka Democracy Park, the next stop.

Source: Wikipedia (Cumhuriyet Anıtı, Taksim Gezi Parkı, Taşkışla, TF1 teleferik); Wikipedia (Republic Monument).

When you step out of the lower cable-car station you are on the floor of the valley. The job at this stop is to walk, sit and look around. The park lies in the hollow known as the Dolmabahçe valley, between Dolmabahçe, Maçka, Nişantaşı and Harbiye. The boundary between the Beşiktaş and Şişli districts also runs through here. The valley had been a picnic ground since the nineteenth century. In the 1970s it became a neglected and unsafe area. It was rearranged and reopened in 1993, and the word Democracy was added to its name at that time. Its last major renovation was carried out by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in 2021. The monument you looked at in Taksim and the fate of this valley belong to the same plan. In 1937 Henri Prost's plan envisaged a park in place of the Artillery Barracks and a cultural valley stretching down to Maçka and Beşiktaş.

Inside the park nine artificial pools and a small artificial island are arranged in steps along the valley. Walk by following the water. The little bridges between the pools are the most photographed spots in the park. Pay attention to the trees as well. Linden, poplar, hornbeam, chestnut, oak, acacia, plane, boxwood, alder and walnut grow side by side. In autumn the valley floor turns yellow and brown. There are two children's playgrounds and two open-air sports areas. If you are walking with children, extend the time at this stop. Most of the benches are beside the pools and under the shade of the trees. This is the best place on the route for a lunch break, because the two stops in Şişli have no green space to sit in.

The buildings on the slopes of the valley tell the history of the park. On the Beşiktaş side the three-storey stone mass of the Maçka Armoury comes into view. Sarkis Balyan designed the building between 1873 and 1875 at the request of Sultan Abdülaziz. It was an armoury where the rifles imported for the infantry were stored, and today it is the main building of the Maçka Campus of Istanbul Technical University. On the slope on the Harbiye side stand the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, the Lütfi Kırdar Congress Centre and the Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theatre in a row. On summer evenings the sound from the open-air theatre can be heard inside the park. If you walk towards the Dolmabahçe end of the valley, the roof of the Beşiktaş stadium appears above the trees. Turn back before going that way, because the route continues north.

Leave the park by the exit on the Harbiye side. The road that climbs past the concert hall and the congress centre brings you to Harbiye, to the junction in front of the Military Museum. The slope is short but steep. Here you walk back up the height you gained with the cable car. The Military Museum is not a stop on this route but is visited on the Republican Istanbul route. Take note of the building as you pass. From the junction onwards the avenue takes the name Halaskargazi. The name means Liberator Veteran and it leads straight to Şişli. Walk the avenue straight to Osmanbey. Along the way look at the facades of the apartment blocks that rose after the 1920s in place of houses with gardens. The next stop, the Atatürk Museum, stands on this avenue.

Source: Wikipedia (Maçka Parkı, Maçka Silahhanesi, Şişli); İBB Taksim yarışması sayfası (Prost planı); Şişli Belediyesi (Halaskargazi adı).

The three-storey pink house squeezed between the apartment blocks on Halaskargazi Avenue is easy to miss from outside. Look for the sign above the door and the bust in front of it. The house was built in 1908 for Osep Kasabyan. Mustafa Kemal moved here on 13 November 1918. He lived here for about six months until he left the city on 16 May 1919 to sail for Samsun. His mother Zübeyde Hanım and his sister Makbule stayed on the upper floor. The lower floor was given to his aide. The task at this stop is to walk floor by floor through the rooms where those six months passed and to feel the scale of the house. This is not a palace but a family home that would have counted as ordinary in the Şişli of the period.

The house opened as a museum on 15 June 1942, in the time of Governor and Mayor Lütfi Kırdar. It is still run by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality today. It is visited on three levels, the ground floor, the first floor and the second floor. The exhibition includes Atatürk's clothes, the objects he used and his medals. Documents on the War of Independence and the reforms and photographs that follow his life from birth to death are also on display. Portraits painted by artists such as İbrahim Çallı and Zeki Kocamemi hang here as well. Stand in front of Çallı's portrait and compare the painting language of the 1920s with the bronze language of Canonica that you saw in Taksim. The most striking thing about the house is that the preparation for the departure to Samsun was made in these rooms. Look at the dates on the documents. Most of them fall between late 1918 and spring 1919.

The building has been worked on several times. It had a partial repair in 1960 and suffered a small fire in 1962. In 1981 it underwent a major restoration for the hundredth anniversary of Atatürk's birth. It reopened on 10 November 2015 after the restoration of 2014-2015. The wooden staircase, ceiling and floor details you see today are the product of that last restoration. The museum is small. If you have come with a large group, visit the floors in turn and quietly. Give way on the narrow stairs to those coming the other way. Check the opening days and hours on the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's page before you go. On national holidays, especially 10 November and 19 May, the house is flooded with visitors.

When you leave the museum, think once more about the name of the avenue. Halaskargazi means Liberator Veteran and is one of Atatürk's titles. The horse-drawn tram from Taksim had reached Şişli in 1881. In the years Atatürk stayed here the avenue was still lined with houses with gardens. The apartment blocks rose after the 1920s. To reach the last stop walk north along the avenue towards Şişli Square. The Osmanbey metro station is close by, but the walk is short. At the square, turn beside the Şişli Mosque into Abide-i Hürriyet Avenue. The avenue takes its name from the monument you are heading for and climbs on a gentle slope to the highest hill of Şişli, to the front of the monument.

Source: Wikipedia (Atatürk Müzesi (İstanbul), Şişli); Şişli Belediyesi (Atatürk ve Şişli).

At the end of Abide-i Hürriyet Avenue the slope ends and the monument stands before you. This is Hürriyet-i Ebediye Hill, the highest point of Şişli, and it looks over the Kağıthane valley. The history of the monument is short and clear. It was raised in memory of the soldiers who died during the uprising that broke out in Istanbul in April 1909 and is known as the 31 March Incident. The design competition was won in April 1909 by the architect Muzaffer Bey. The foundation was laid on 23 July 1909 and, according to the sources, the monument was opened on 23 July 1911, during the anniversary celebrations of the Constitution. The sources count it as the first national monument built in the Ottoman period. Muzaffer Bey was one of the leading names of the First National Architecture movement, and this monument is one of the early examples of that movement.

Stand in front of the monument and look at the whole first. It is entirely of marble and resembles a cannon barrel firing upwards. It rises on a triangular platform; Muzaffer Bey derived this geometry from the triangular ground of the hill. As you approach you see the bronze plaques and the door with wings of bronze. The plaques carry the tughra of Sultan Mehmed Reşad and the dates commemorating the proclamation of the Constitution. Beneath the monument there is a small prayer chamber reached by eighteen steps. This chamber, with three piers and a small dome, holds the sarcophagi of the fallen soldiers, and its inscriptions were written by the calligrapher Hasan Sabri Efendi. This section may not always be open; if it is closed, be content with looking from outside.

The area around the monument is a cemetery, and the second half of the stop passes here. Seventy-one soldiers who died in the uprising, three of them officers, were buried here. The open tomb of Grand Vizier Mahmud Şevket Paşa, assassinated in 1913, was built beside the monument, and this tomb was designed by the architect Kemaleddin Bey. The remains of Talat Paşa were brought here on 25 February 1943. The graves of Enver Paşa and Midhat Paşa are in the same area. Walk slowly between the gravestones, do not step on the stones and do not speak loudly. You will recognise the silhouette of the monument, because the Şişli Municipality has used it in its logo since 1990. Gold and silver commemorative coins were struck for the opening; the dates on the monument are the same as those on the coins.

The best angle for a photograph is a low one that sets the cannon-shaped body against the sky; in the afternoon the light comes from the west and makes the marble look warm. When you have finished the visit you can close the route here. For the return, walk back along Abide-i Hürriyet Avenue to Şişli and enter the Şişli-Mecidiyeköy metro station. The Mecidiyeköy Metrobüs stop is also within walking distance. Those who want to stretch the day should walk on comparing in their minds the bronze of 1928 they saw in Taksim with the marble of 1911 here; the story this route tells is exactly the years between these two monuments.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (Abide-i Hürriyet, Semavi Eyice); Wikipedia (Abide-i Hürriyet, Şişli).