For a neighbourhood that produced princes, Phanar (Fener) looked remarkably unassuming. Its waterfront houses on the southern shore of the Golden Horn were tightly shuttered, dark and irregular. Even the palace was scarcely more imposing than its neighbours.

The French painter Antoine-Laurent Castellan saw this in 1797, when he arrived by caique to paint for a prince. But this modesty was deceptive, for behind Fener’s guarded façades lived families of immense wealth and influence, whose networks extended from the Ottoman court many miles north to the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

All Phanar Is Here at ANAMED (the Research Centre for Anatolian Civilizations) is the culmination of a four-year research project into the poorly understood world of the Phanariots. It takes its title from a scholar writing from Bucharest in 1719: “All Phanar is here; I no longer reminisce about Istanbul.” Prominent families of Fener moved between the two cities, carrying their households, connections and wealth with them. The exhibition’s route loosely follows that of a newly appointed voivode, the prince of Moldavia or Wallachia, from his household in Fener to investiture at court, to a blessing at the Patriarchate, and finally north to Iaşi or Bucharest

Originally, “Phanariot” referred to the inhabitants of a mixed neighbourhood with a Greek Orthodox majority. From the mid-17th century, it came to denote a particular group of Greek Orthodox families. Mediterranean trade and connections with Europe gave them networks and linguistic abilities that became increasingly valuable for Ottoman diplomacy with European powers. Phanariots consequently gained key positions in the state bureaucracy.

For 160 years from 1661, Phanariots dominated the office of imperial dragoman. 
It was a position of great importance: the dragoman advised on foreign affairs and actually negotiated with foreign powers. The separate office of dragoman of the fleet extended Phanariot influence into Ottoman maritime affairs.

From the 1710s, Phanariots were appointed voivodes of Moldavia and Wallachia. Their lavish households and patronage made Bucharest a glittering centre of politics, culture and commerce. Their authority was considerable –but precarious. At his Sublime Porte investiture, the voivode donned a kaftan and a vast plumed headdress, the kuka serpuş – spectacular even by Ottoman standards. Prince Nicolas Soutzo, the son of Wallachia’s last Phanariot prince, recalled his father stumbling during the ceremony, his kuka wobbling dangerously. “Credulous minds” later took it as an omen of his mysterious death amid the rebellion of 1821, which ended Phanariot rule over Moldo-Wallachia.

After 1821, Fener slipped into disrepute: as its great families departed, it eventually became the overcrowded fena yer (“bad place”) of popular memory. The Phanariots became an awkward legacy for both Greek and Turkish national histories, condemned in Greece as Ottoman collaborators. The exhibition’s catalogue brings together contributions by Greek, Turkish and Romanian scholars.

Reconstructing the Phanariot world is difficult. Much of its wealth was concealed within homes, and later dispersed or confiscated. Few original objects appear in the exhibition, rare pieces from the Ömer Koç Collection. Instead, written accounts and reproductions bring the Phanariot world to life. A patriarch praises a correspondent’s bibliophilia, before demanding that he return the books hidden in his chests. At a princely supper in Bucharest, Lady Elizabeth Craven admires candlesticks set with rubies and emeralds, while enduring “the most diabolical noise” from the prince’s Turkish musicians.

The exhibition also makes imaginative use of digital technology. Visitors can step inside a virtual-reality reconstruction of an 18th-century Phanariot house created with Koç University’s KARMA XR Lab. All Phanar is Here is an exceptional show, at once scholarly and an evocative picture of the little-appreciated role of the Phanariots in Ottoman history.

All Phanar Is Here: Household, Neighborhood, Court, and the City’ is at Anamed, Beyoğlu, Istanbul, until Jan 24, 2027