Balat and Fener
The Jewish and Greek quarters of the Ottoman city, still with the hills and the churches that left behind.
- Builtneighbourhoods since the fifteenth century
- DistrictFatih
There is no monument here to visit and tick off. There are streets: wooden and brick houses leaning on one another, washing strung between windows, and suddenly an Orthodox church or a synagogue in the middle of it.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is in Fener and still functioning. The Greek college, in red brick, is the building you can see from across the Golden Horn.
This is the neighbourhood that has changed most in ten years, between new cafés and building work. Best in the morning, before it fills.
What to look for
- The Greek college at Fener, in red brick, visible from across the Golden Horn.
- The houses on Kiremit and Vodina, leaning into the hill and painted in colours that do not match.
- St Stephen's church at the waterside — cast iron throughout, made in Vienna and shipped here.
- The cafés on the steps of Merdivenli Yokuş, which are the reason the neighbourhood changed.
Look around in 360°
Before you go
- In the morning, before it fills. By the afternoon the painted steps are a queue for photographs.
- People live here. The coloured houses are houses, with people at the windows.
- Two hours on foot, unhurried, with a stop for tea.
- It goes well with Chora and the Eyüp cable car on the same day.
