Walking the Old Port Quarter from Galata to Tophane

On one of the streets that drop from the foot of the Galata Tower to Bankalar Caddesi, this curving staircase is among the most photographed corners of Karaköy. It was built in the second half of the 19th century by Abraham Salomon Camondo, head of the Camondos, one of the leading banking families of the Ottoman Empire. Sources differ on the date; some give the 1850s, others the years between 1870 and 1880.

According to the sources, the stairs had two jobs. They shortened Camondo's way from his house up the hill to the street of banks, and they made it easier for his children to reach the nearby Austrian school. This showpiece is really a shortcut, and people moving between Karaköy and Galata still use it all day.

The design sits somewhere between Neo-Baroque and early Art Nouveau. Its curves give the staircase an almost sculptural look, so you understand its shape best from the street below or from the upper landing. Look at the braided pattern of the railings and the hexagonal form of the steps; this form is said to have been chosen so that children would not slide and fall if they stumbled. The photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson captured the stairs in 1964, and they have been one of the city's familiar images ever since.

If you want photographs, come early in the morning, as the passage gets busier through the day. The stairs are narrow, so leave room for people going up and down. At the bottom you step straight onto Bankalar Caddesi; the next stop, SALT Galata, is a few steps away.

Source: Wikipedia (Kamondo Merdivenleri; Camondo Stairs).

Bankalar Caddesi used to be called Voyvoda Caddesi; in the 17th century Evliya Çelebi refers to it as the Voyvoda Road. In the late Ottoman period the street was the financial centre of the empire, and banks and insurance companies stayed here until the 1990s. The stock exchange, founded in 1866 as the Dersaadet Securities Exchange, was also on this street until it moved to İstinye in 1995.

The grandest building here is the headquarters that the French Levantine architect Alexandre Vallaury designed for the Ottoman Bank, opened in 1892. Try to see both of its faces. The front on the street is neoclassical, a dignified banking facade dressed in reliefs. The rear facade on the Golden Horn side is oriental in character, with projecting bay windows. The contrast between the two is read as an expression of the bank's position between East and West.

The building remained the bank's headquarters from 1892 to 1999. After a renovation led by Han Tümertekin's team it reopened as SALT Galata in November 2011. The first place to look for inside is the Ottoman Bank Museum on the minus one floor. Founded in 2002, it was the first museum set up by a private bank in Turkey and sits inside the vaults where the bank began operating in 1892. Banknotes, ledgers, share certificates and staff photographs tell the bank's story up to 1933, and a section on the ground floor covers the construction of the headquarters.

Upstairs are the SALT Research reading room, an auditorium and changing exhibitions. Admission is free and it is closed on Mondays; check current hours on the official website.

Source: SALT resmi sitesi; Wikipedia (Bankalar Caddesi).

Walk west from Bankalar Caddesi to Galata Mahkemesi Sokağı and a square minaret with a pointed cap rises between the narrow streets. It looks like no other minaret in Istanbul, because the building's history is unlike that of most mosques in the city. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, a large church built by Dominican friars stood here in the 14th century. After the conquest, around 1475, it was converted into a mosque as part of Mehmed the Conqueror's endowment and appears in documents as the Galata Mosque. When Andalusian Muslims arriving from Spain settled in the area after the fall of the Nasrid state in 1492, it came to be known as the Arap Mosque.

The minaret is the converted former bell tower. Its square plan and triple windows recall the minarets of the Umayyad period in Syria. Inside, the Gothic vaults on the qibla side are the clearest trace of the medieval building. In the 18th century Saliha Sultan enlarged and repaired the structure and added an ablution fountain in 1734-35. In 1868-69 Adile Sultan had a cistern and a fountain built in the courtyard. In the major restoration led by Giritli Hasan Bey in 1913-1919 the roof was renewed, an Arab-style entrance portico was added, and Italian tombstones found under the floor went to the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. Medieval, 18th-century and 20th-century layers sit side by side here.

Today the Arap Mosque is the neighbourhood's place of worship. Plan your visit outside prayer times and take off your shoes at the entrance. Women should cover their hair, and everyone should wear clothing that covers shoulders and knees. Keep quiet, do not walk in front of people praying, and take photos without flash.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia (Arap Camii).

Walk east through Karaköy to Tophane square and the large domed building ahead is the mosque of the complex the grand admiral Kılıç Ali Pasha commissioned from Mimar Sinan. According to its verse inscription the mosque was completed in 1580. Sinan took on the job late in life, when he was in his nineties. The complex was built on the shore at the head of a landing; the waterfront has since been filled in, and today the buildings of Galataport stand in front of the mosque.

The plan is a small-scale interpretation of Hagia Sophia. A main dome about 12.70 metres across is supported by two half-domes on the qibla axis. Look up once inside and you can read the scheme; instead of the grandeur of the Süleymaniye you find a compact, balanced interior. The mihrab sits in a projection that extends beyond the wall and is framed by tiles from the finest period of the İznik workshops. The entrance inscriptions and the mihrab calligraphy are by Demircikulu Yusuf Efendi, of the last generation of the Karahisari school.

Besides the mosque, the complex includes a madrasa with seventeen cells, a hamam, Kılıç Ali Pasha's tomb with its octagonal exterior, a primary school and a sebil. The mosque, tomb and hamam were restored in 2011, and the rest of the complex, including the madrasa, by 2015. The graveyard holds several burials, among them that of Admiral Ateş Mehmed Pasha.

Mind prayer times; Friday noon is especially crowded. Shoes come off at the entrance and women wear a headscarf. Cover shoulders and knees, keep quiet, use no flash and do not walk in front of people praying.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia (Kılıç Ali Paşa Camii; Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex).

The hamam next to the mosque was the income-producing part of the complex. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam dates its completion to February 1583. Built as part of a harbour complex on reclaimed land, it served sailors and generated revenue for the endowment. It was designed as a single hamam, meaning it had no separate sections for men and women.

The most original part of the building is its hot room. In this hexagonal space, four of the six arched recesses are bathing places and the other two open onto the cool rooms on either side. At the centre is the heated stone platform, and above it a single dome lets in the light. The walls are built of mixed stone and brick masonry. Over the centuries earthquakes damaged the dome in particular, and the building was neglected for many years.

In 2005 the İren family bought the building and began a thorough restoration. The work, directed by the architect Cafer Bozkurt, took about seven years and was completed in 2012. Wooden changing cubicles that had been added later on the open platform of the cool room were removed, making Sinan's open space visible again, and the dome was repaired with traditional techniques. The project won the National Architecture Award in 2016 and a Europa Nostra Award in 2017.

The hamam is working again. Originally for men only, it now receives women and men at separate hours. If you want to see the inside as a bather, check the hours and conditions on the hamam's own website. If you are just passing, the domed mass seen from the street shows well how Sinan set mosque and bathhouse side by side.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Europa Nostra; Wikipedia (Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamamı).

Coming out onto the square, stop first at the Tophane Fountain. Built by Mahmud I in 1732, it is square in plan with four identical faces and corners chamfered to two thirds of its height. Look closely at the stone reliefs: fruit trees rising from vases and flowers in urns are set in rectangular frames. With the wavy eaves at the corners, the fountain is a typical example of the shift from classical Ottoman taste to Western ornament, and it is counted among the largest square fountains in Istanbul. The verse inscription giving its date is by the poet Nafihi. The fountain once stood at the water's edge and was left inland by landfill; it was thoroughly restored in 2006.

North of the fountain, stretching towards Boğazkesen, the domed building is Tophane-i Amire. After the conquest Mehmed the Conqueror set up a foundry here where cannons for the army and navy were cast. Renewed under Süleyman the Magnificent, it was reworked again in the 18th century, and according to the sources the present building was rebuilt in 1743. After an iron works was set up in Zeytinburnu in 1843 and reached full capacity in 1850, cannon casting gradually moved away from here.

The building was handed over to Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 1992 and is now used as the Tophane-i Amire Culture and Art Centre. It has three exhibition spaces, the Five Domes, the Single Dome and the Cisterns. If an exhibition is on, step into the Five Domes hall and take in the scale of the building under the domes that give it its name. The calendar changes, so check the university's announcements first.

Source: Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi; Kültür Envanteri; Wikipedia (Tophane-i Amire; Tophane Çeşmesi).

The last stop, the Nusretiye Mosque right next to the Tophane tram stop, was built two and a half centuries after the previous stops and in a very different taste. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, construction of the mosque commissioned by Mahmud II began in June 1823 after a major fire and was completed on 8 April 1826. Its architect was Krikor Amira Kalfa of the Balyan family. The name means victory and is associated with Mahmud II's abolition of the Janissary corps.

From outside you first notice the pair of unusually slender minarets. The mosque is a showy building combining European Baroque and Empire styles. Compare its facade decoration with the plain mass of the Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque a few hundred metres back; in a few minutes' walk you see Ottoman architecture move from the classical language of the 16th century to the westernising language of the 19th. The imperial pavilion the sultan used when he came to the mosque is part of the building.

The painted decoration inside draws on a Western ornamental vocabulary rather than traditional Turkish motifs. Look up at the dome, where a foliate motif replaces the usual band of inscription, an innovative detail for its time. The famous calligrapher of the period, Mustafa Rakım, contributed to the inscription programme. A timekeeper's room and a sebil used to stand opposite the mosque; 20th-century urban changes transformed the surroundings and these buildings were later moved.

The mosque is open for worship. Come outside prayer times, take off your shoes, women should cover their hair, shoulders and knees should be covered, and keep quiet inside. From here the tram takes you easily to Kabataş or Eminönü.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia (Nusretiye Camii).