Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

CHURCH Nagelmackers founded the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et Grands Express Européens in 1868. The Orient Express service first operated in 1883 and the entrepreneur soon realised that İstanbul had no suitably luxurious hotels where his esteemed passengers could stay. His solution was to build one himself and he commissioned the fashionable İstanbul-born but French-trained architect Alexandre Vallaury to design it. On opening, the hotel advertised itself as having ‘a thoroughly healthy situation, being high up and isolated on all four sides’, and ‘overlooking the Golden Horn and the whole panorama of Stamboul’. Its guests included Agatha Christie, who supposedly wrote Murder on the Orient Express in room 411; Mata Hari, who no doubt frequented the elegant bar with its lovely stained glass windows and excellent eavesdropping opportunities; and Greta Garbo, who probably enjoyed her own company in one of the spacious suites. AYA TRIADA ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Hagia Triada; Meşelik Sokak, Taksim; h 8.30am-6pm; m Taksim) Built in 1880, this is İstanbul’s largest Greek Orthodox church and has a small but loyal congregation. Attacked during the appalling anti-minority events of 6–7 September 1955, it was extensively damaged and pillaged but managed to survive an arson attempt. Finally restored in the first years of the new millennium, it was re-inaugurated in 2003. CULTURAL CENTRE İSTANBUL ARASTIRMALARI ENSTITÜSÜ ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; İstanbul Research Institute; % 0212-334 0900; http://en.iae.org.tr; Meşrutiyet Caddesi 47, Tepebaşı; h 10am-7pm Mon-Sat; m Şişhane, j Tünel) F Associated with the nearby Pera Museum, this institution incorporates a publicly accessible research library focusing on the cultural and social history of İstanbul during the Byzantine, Ottoman and Republican periods. It also stages temporary exhibitions, conferences and seminars dealing with this subject.

GALERI NEV

GALLERY