In the heart of Istanbul, this neighborhood retains its cultural cachet despite centuries of change, writes Jennifer Hattam
Istanbul, Turkey | Türkiye Sotheby’s International Realty
Sweeping uphill from where the Golden Horn’s waters lap at the Karaköy docks to Taksim Square, the part of Istanbul historically known as Galata and Pera has always stood apart. Pera in Greek means “the other side,” referring to its position on the opposite shore from the seat of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.
“We entered a street that curved this way and that, full of nooks and corners. Every house was a shop offering herbs, bread, meat or clothes,” the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen observed during an 1841 visit to the area. “We met people from every corner of the world.” Now part of the larger Beyoğlu district of modern Istanbul, this area is where Genoese, Venetian, Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities established themselves over centuries, creating a cosmopolitan spirit that lingers.
The main thoroughfare of Beyoğlu is İstiklal Caddesi, formerly the Grande Rue de Péra, a mile-long pedestrian promenade lined with stately turn-of-the-20th-century apartment buildings and still filled with a cacophony of sounds, sights and languages.
İlhan Koman’s famous sculpture “Akdeniz,” 1980, at the Yapı Kredi cultural center. Photograph: © Teğet Architecture 2025 © Cemal Emden 2025
“The whole street is a performance, with a rhythm of its own; you feel like anything can happen when you are walking down İstiklal,” says art curator Didem Yazıcı, the director of exhibitions at Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat, the eight-story cultural center here. Its towering glass facade overlooks both the ornate entrance gate of the prestigious Galatasaray High School and the iconic gathering point of Galatasaray Square.
When Yapı Kredi, a large Turkish bank, debuted this new 5,600-square-meter arts venue in 2017, it followed a particularly tough couple of years for Beyoğlu and the wider city. The reopening felt like a sign: there was life in the old neighborhood yet.
“Beyoğlu has always had its ups and downs throughout history,” says designer Serra Türker, founder of luxury handbag and accessories brand Misela. She has stores in Istanbul, New York, London and the Turkish resort town of Bodrum, but Beyoğlu is where it all began. “It’s part of our identity,” she says.
Türker opened Misela’s first shop in a late-19th-century building on Meşrutiyet Caddesi, another storied avenue that winds roughly parallel to İstiklal. Her current neighbors include the Michelin-listed Aheste, a contemporary Turkish-Middle Eastern bistro with exposed-brick walls and intimate lighting; a concept store for the socially responsible clothes retailer Vitruta; and a branch of the third-wave coffee shop Petra Roasting Company, which shares space with Bilsart, a gallery devoted to video art.
Misela’s luxury handbag and accessories boutique in Pera, Beyoğlu. Photograph: Misela
Just up the street is Minoa, a design-forward Turkish- and English-language bookstore that opened its Beyoğlu location in 2023, complete with a cafe, restaurant, bar and small performance space. It shares the historic Union Française building, designed by French architect Alexandre Vallaury in 1896 in the Belle Époque style, with the well-known commercial galleries Dirimart and Öktem Aykut. Further along is Galerist, a space dedicated to contemporary Turkish artists.
“There is a vibrant cultural ecosystem in Beyoğlu that continuously adapts and evolves,” says Ümit Mesci, a curator at Istanbul Modern, the city’s flagship contemporary art institution. The museum temporarily hosted exhibitions in the Union Française while its new Renzo Piano-designed building was under construction on the Karaköy waterfront. “The reopening is part of a broader revival, reflecting a community that embraces change, while respecting its rich heritage,” Mesci says.
The viewing terrace of Istanbul Modern art museum, designed by Renzo Piano. Photograph: Enrico Cano
The arts have long been a key part of Beyoğlu’s identity, from the opera houses, theaters and concert halls where Istanbulites first saw Western music performed in the 1800s to the cabarets and nightclubs of the Jazz Age. Not forgetting the mid-century heyday of the Yeşilçam film industry, Turkey’s answer to Hollywood.
Turkish TV and movie crews can often still be found filming on character-filled streets. The bold yellow Italianate Doğan Apartment, constructed in 1894 for a Belgian banking family on Serdar-ı Ekrem Caddesi in Galata, presides over an ever-shifting array of shops, cafes, offices and artists’ studios. The more residential Faik Paşa Caddesi in Çukurcuma has winding alleys full of antique stores.
Civan Er’s Michelin-listed restaurant Yeni Lokanta. Photograph: Courtesy Yeni Lokanta
Beyoğlu retains a strong historic atmosphere and neighborhood character. It’s the kind of place where street vendors still push carts full of gleaming produce, freshly popped corn or house plants past groups of cafe-hoppers spilling out onto the sidewalks. It’s where shops selling a rainbow array of pickles or sweets have stayed in business for a century despite the ever-accelerating pace of change.
“Whatever goes on in Beyoğlu, it never bores you,” says Civan Er, chef-owner of Yeni Lokanta. A Michelin-listed restaurant known for its innovative twists on traditional Turkish cuisine, it’s been open since 2013—“a long time by Turkish standards,” he says. With the original location now a firm fixture in Beyoğlu’s dining scene, Er has since relocated to London, where he has opened a sister restaurant, Yeni, in Soho. Busy with his new venture, he says he probably won’t be moving back to Turkey soon, “but if I were to return, it would be to Beyoğlu, nowhere else.”
From Turkish luxury to Italian flair, explore Milan, European capital of design
