Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

TOP SIGHT İSTIKLAL CADDESI

Once called the Grand Rue de Pera but renamed İstiklal (Independence) in the early years of the Republic, Beyoğlu’s premier boulevard is a perfect metaphor for 21st-century Turkey. A long pedestrianised strip crammed with shops, cafes and cultural centres, it showcases İstanbul’s Janus-like personality, embracing modernity one minute and happily bowing to tradition the next.

EFESENKO/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

At İstiklal’s northern end is Taksim Meydanı ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; m Taksim) , the symbolic heart of the modern city. At its southern end is the relatively tranquil district of Galata, home to crooked lanes and traces of a fortified settlement built by Genoese merchants in the 13th century. In the 19th century, new ideas brought from Europe by traders and diplomats walked into Ottoman daily life down the streets of Pera (as Beyoğlu was originally called). Today, the area remains European in flavour and contains