Tophane
Tophane is a neighborhood in the center of Istanbul . It is located in the Beyoğlu ( Pera ) district on the European bank of the Bosphorus , about 500 meters southeast of Istanbul's main shopping street, İstiklal Caddesi . The Turkish name means "Kanonenhof" ( armory ).
The area is at sea level below the actual Beyoğlu, which is situated on the hills. Directly to the south, at the mouth of the Golden Horn in the Bosporus, lies the Karaköy quarter , the old Galata. To the north, along the bank, follow the districts of Fındıklı and Kabataş , inland on Cihangir Hill .
Today's Tophane has been settled since Byzantine times. The Tophane Treaty negotiated here in 1886 , in which the Ottoman Empire ceded territories to Bulgaria, was named after the district . While Beyoğlu / Pera is the center of "European" Istanbul to this day and had numerous residents from Western Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Tophane was one of the residential areas of the East Christian Istanbulers, especially Phanariots (Greeks) and Armenians , as well as from Jews . After the Christian minority in Turkey was largely wiped out by genocide , displacement and pogroms , internal migrants, including many Kurds and Roma , took over the homes and neighborhoods of those who had fled. Recently, there has been a renewed displacement process in the form of strong gentrification, as a result of which an educated, urban middle class has moved into the attractive and centrally located district.
Tophane's main street is the Kemeraltı and Meclis-i Mebusan Caddesi, which runs parallel to the Bosphorus . This is where the T1 tram runs , which has a Tophane stop in the center of the district . The most famous buildings and facilities include the Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque (also Tophane Mosque , Sinan , 1578–1581), the Tophane Fountain, the Nusretiye Mosque ( Krikor Balyan , 1823–26), the Istanbul Modern Art Museum and the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts .
