Istanbul Guide

187

Golden Horn (2018) and a pedestrian tunnel linking Kabataş in Beyoğlu with Üsküdar on the Asian shore. Heritage Initiatives A massive program of heritage restoration has been undertaken in recent years, focusing on the imperial mosques. These are being magnificently restored, but we’re sorry to report that the city’s Byzantine building stock hasn’t received the same level of attention. Some important Byzantine buildings have been all but de stroyed (the historic land walls), some left to fall into disrepair (Anemas Zindanları in Ayvansaray) and oth ers are being subjected to restorations that can only be described as reprehensible (Church of the Monas tery of Christ Pantokrator). Some Byzantine buildings that have been converted into mosques have been restored, but have lost much of their original char acter in the process. Most worrying is a push by a small but vocal sector of the community to overturn Atatürk’s decision to designate Unesco-listed Aya So fya as a museum and have it once again function as a mosque. This could place its acclaimed mosaics and frescoes in peril and would greatly upset members of the local and international Christian communities. An Exciting Cultural Landscape During the past decade the city’s big banks, business es and universities have built and endowed an array of cutting-edge museums and cultural centres, many of which have been designed by local architectural practices with growing international reputations. Joining mightily impressive cultural centres such as İstanbul Modern, SALT Galata, ARTER and Borusan Contemporary on the Bosphorus will be the Antrepo 5 Museum of Contemporary Art, a visually arresting building in Tophane designed by high-profile local architectural firm Emre Arolat. These and a number of other institutions (large and small, public and private) aim to nurture a new and exciting generation of Turkish artists. Com plementing exhibition, lecture and performance programs, the city’s festival circuit, spearheaded by the impressive İstanbul Foundation for Culture and The city’s skyline is in many ways its signature, but in the past decade some modern – and mind-blowingly ugly – developments have been added to it. In or der to accommodate this ‘urban regeneration’, some residents – a good percentage of whom, critics have noted, are members of minority social groups – have been forcibly removed from their homes in inner city suburbs and relocated to purpose-built high-rise housing in outer suburbs. Arts, is now one of the busiest in Europe. And Some Dodgy Developments

TURKEY İSTANBUL population per sq km

≈ 100 people

if İstanbul were 100 people

65 would live on the European side 35 would live on the Asian side

Ages (% of population)

31

38

Under 20

20-39

23

8

40-60

Over 60