Open up a world of Turkish inspiration with a Cornucopia digital subscription

Buy or gift a stand-alone digital subscription and get unlimited access to dozens of back issues for just £18.99 / $18.99 a year.

Please register at www.exacteditions.com/digital/cornucopia with your subscriber account number or contact subscriptions@cornucopia.net

Buy a digital subscription Go to the Digital Edition

Cornucopia’s travel guide

Büyükdere


At first sight, Büyükdere is not very promising, but it has a fabulous museum, several  grand yalıs, and the odd meyhane. As in Arnavutköy, a highway on stilts was constructed in front of the town, separating it from the sea. But historically, after Tarabya, this was the second of the grand places to build your summer embassy, and the Spanish and the Russians still have handsome houses and gardens here. The Spanish was the first to be restored. The Russians have just begun, and the view of the bay of Beykoz, where they  liked to moor their fleet, explains the location. Büyükdere (the Grand Valley), is home of the Turkish coastguard fleet.

Historically, Büyükdere's advantage over Tarabya was that it backed on to the Belgrade Forest, in the old days an easy ride away – you could hire a horse from the shore, and the sultan used to do the long ride from the top of the Golden Horn to Sarıyer, pausing to rest and contemplate by one of the several great reservoirs built by the Ottomans in the forest. There are frequent buses (to Bahçeköy). Also woth a visit near Bahçeköy is the Atatürk Arboretum, though it has to be said having a car helps.

The key thing to note when planning a visit to Büyükdere is that the Sadberk Hanım Museum, possibly the best private museum in Turkey, is is closed on Wednesday, not, like most other musuems, on Monday.

Getting there

Metro: Hacıosman, though if you don’t mind the extra 5TL, fewer escalators are involved if you exit at Darulşafaka.

The high road running the length of the Bosphorus from Beyoğlu, via Mecidiyeköy and Levent, is known as Büyükdere Caddesi, and sweeps down to the Bosphorus shore from Hacıosman, last stop on the Taksim metroline. Minibuses hurtle up and down the route as far as Sarıyer. The Sadberk Hanım Museum is just past the main town. The Sarıyer boat station is a 10-minute walk from the museum.

Cornucopia Digital Subscription

The Digital Edition

Cornucopia works in partnership with the digital publishing platform Exact Editions to offer individual and institutional subscribers unlimited access to a searchable archive of fascinating back issues and every newly published issue. The digital edition of Cornucopia is available cross-platform on web, iOS and Android and offers a comprehensive search function, allowing the title’s cultural content to be delved into at the touch of a button.

Digital Subscription: £18.99 / $18.99 (1 year)

Subscribe now