We’ve mentioned before that there are more neighbourhoods in Istanbul than we can keep track of. But before we leave, we did want to mention Fener-Balat, given its historical interest and its attractiveness. The area is located on the southern shore of the Golden Horn, nor far from we are in Aksaray. But in many respects it is worlds away from our part of Istanbul.
After the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, Fener became the neighbourhood where the Greeks of the city lived. It still contains the Patriarchal Cathedral Church of St George, which since 1600 has been the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Patriarch is the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church worldwide. This means he same status as the Pope in Rome does for the Catholic Church. Despite its importance, it is a relatively small church, and much of what you see today is modern, the result of fires in the 18th and 20th centuries. Still, the interior is dazzling. The small size of the church is the result of the Ottoman ruling that all non-Muslim buildings must be smaller than their Muslim counterpart (in this case, a mosque). Before the fall of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia had been the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Adjoining Fener is Balat, a neighbourhood that was historically home to the Jews of the city. The great influx of Jews took place in the 15th century, when Sultan Bayezid II offered citizenship to Jews fleeing the Inquisition in Spain and Africa. At one time there were 18 synagogues in this small area. Today only two are still active.
Balat was also home to Armenians and the Bulgarians, and the latter in particular have left their mark with St Stephen Church, sometimes known as the Bulgarian St Stephen Church. The building one sees today is not the original. That one (wooden) burned down in the late 19th century. The replacement church is noteworthy because it is made entirely of cast iron, the parts for which were built in Vienna in the 1890s and transported by ship from the Danube through the Black Sea to Istanbul.
Quite aside from churches and synagogues – though there are many! – the neighbourhoods of Fener and Balat have lots of coffee shops, antique stores, and small and inviting eateries. Plus one of our favourite meze restaurants. Tour groups wander the streets every day, taking in the lovely buildings, many of which are painted in bright colours. The first time we stumbled into these neighbourhoods we joked that we had just arrived in Greenwich Village. We found a particularly lovely coffee shop, the New Zealand Coffee Roastery, on one of the small streets. Not a Kiwi in sight, but we did find a lovely window seat one level up where we could watch the people, tourist and native, coming and going.
