Balat & Fener

Neighborhood · FatihIstanbul,Türkiye

Two neighbourhoods climbing the Golden Horn shore in coloured timber houses, once Greek, Jewish and Armenian, still holding the Orthodox Patriarchate and the Ahrida synagogue.

Balat and Fener are two old neighbourhoods stacked up the Golden Horn shore, and the pleasure is the wandering. Streets climb in ribbons of pink, ochre and blue houses, past antique shops, cafés and street-art walls. Step off the famous corners and the crowds thin fast: laundry strung overhead, cats on every stair, children playing football against a crumbling Byzantine wall. The real monuments hide around the bends — the Fener Greek High School, a red-brick mass on the hilltop that Istanbul calls the Red Castle, and a cast-iron Bulgarian church down by the water. For centuries these lanes were shared by Istanbul's Greek, Jewish and Armenian families. Fener, from the Greek word for lantern, grew around the Greek Orthodox community and still holds the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the senior seat of the world's Orthodox Christians. Balat, named from the Greek for palace, became the main Jewish quarter after Sephardic refugees fled Spain in 1492, and the Ahrida synagogue still stands there. Those communities have dwindled to a few families, and the district is now one of Istanbul's most photographed walks.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come on a weekday morning — the rainbow house rows on Kiremit Caddesi fill with photographers by weekend afternoons, while early hours hand you the colours and the soft light almost alone.
Rain makes the steps treacherous — the lanes climb on uneven cobbles and worn stairs that turn slick after a shower, and the corners worth finding are always the ones uphill.
These lanes are homes, not a film set — greet the residents, keep doorways and steps clear, and always ask before you point a camera at anyone.
Ring the bell — small churches like St Mary of the Mongols are usually locked, but a caretaker will often open up for you if you ring and wait a moment.
The Patriarchate's central gate has been shut since 1821 — Patriarch Gregory V was hanged from it and it never opened again; visitors reach the church of St George by a side entrance.

Things to do

1
Climb the coloured staircase of Merdivenli Yokuş
This stepped lane is the most photographed corner of Balat, framed by houses in sherbet pinks, blues and yellows. Climb it slowly, and near the top turn around: the reward is the long view back down over the tiled rooftops to the Golden Horn. Come early enough and the whole staircase can be almost yours.
2
Reach the iron church of St Stephen's
Walk down to the Golden Horn shore, where St Stephen's stands in a small waterfront garden. Step inside for the gilded altar and tiered balconies, all of them metal, then cross to the far edge of the road or the water and look back at the whole church. It is best in low sun, when the pale detail catches the light.
3
Read the pavement outside the antique shops
Between the cafés, Balat's dealers set their stock straight out on the pavement: chandeliers hooked to the wall, valve radios, brass scales, chipped enamel signs. Walk the row slowly and read it as a picture of what these houses once held, room by room.