On Thursday, I visited the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. This museum's collection consists exclusively of artifacts from Islamic empires, with a heavy focus on those that were founded by Turks.
The museum occupies the palatial former home of the most important of Suleyman the Magnificent's grand viziers, Ibrahim Pasa.
Detail of a mosque door from Konya, Turkey.
The museum houses a vast collection of rugs and flat-woven kilims. They line the walls of the former great hall of the palace in an explosion of colors and patterns.
Yesterday, I visited the neighborhood of Fener, a knot of streets hard against the northern end of the old city walls. This area was dominated for centuries by Greek and Jewish communities and contains numerous, but now rarely used, Orthodox Churches.
The church of St. Stephen of the Bulgars is unique in a number of ways. Unlike most other churches built in Ottoman Istanbul, its grounds are open to the surrounding streets. It was built in 1871 to serve a community of Bulgarian Christians who had broken with the Greek Orthodox Church.
However, the feature that makes this church truly unusual is that it is made entirely of cast iron. Made in Vienna, it was shipped in pieces and assembled at its current location near the shore of the Golden Horn.
Unlike the previous churches I have visited, I was allowed to take pictures inside St. Stephen's.
A short distance from St. Stephen's is the complex of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch. The head of the Greek Orthodox Church has been based at its current home since the 17th century. Though the Greek community is largely gone from Istanbul, the church's Patriarch still remains, a silent testimony to Istanbul's origins as a Greek city.
The front door of the complex has been welded shut. At the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, Patriarch Gregory V encouraged his people to revolt against the Ottoman Empire. As a result, he was hanged for treason from the front door of the Patriarchy. From that time, the door has been permanently shut in his memory.
The complex's church, St. George, dates from 1720 and is a glittering spectacle of gold, silver, colorful icons and inlaid wood. The Patriarch's throne in the second photo is thought to date back to Byzantine times.
The neighborhood of Fener itself feels like it has been frozen in time. Bunches of children roam the streets, women lean out of second floor windows, conversing with neighbors, tiny shops specialize in providing one type of goods to the neighborhood. Many of the homes appear to date from Ottoman times and are a hodge-podge of color, style and decor.
Unfortunately, many similar buildings are in absolute ruins. There is some evidence that certain buildings, especially stone ones, are being renovated and re-purposed. However, neglect seems to be norm. I can only speculate that since this area receives few tourists (except for the ones bused in to the Greek Patriarchy) its upkeep is of little concern to the government.
Since Peter is going to be here, we may have some guest posts from him and his impressions of Istanbul in the up coming days.
Until then, I leave you with a sokak kedi on a motorcycle.
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