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4th Levantine Heritage Foundation walk gathering in Istanbul with hosts Cem Temuroğlu & Zafer Akay
The urbanisation journey of Kadıköy, the first modern residential area on Istanbul’s Anatolian side, began in the 19th century. Like Istanbul’s historic peninsula, as well as Ankara, İzmir, Antakya and many other significant Anatolian cities, Kadıköy sits – although it is largely unaware of this fact – atop a forgotten past.
A common trait shared by all these places is that the Ottoman-era residential fabric, which lay across various historical layers, was largely obliterated in a ruthless manner during the mid-20th century to make way for multi-story apartment blocks, while the very concept of ‘archaeological sites’ was only just beginning to be recognised. Considering that its city walls were dismantled and used in the construction of the Valens Aqueduct, one might conclude that history has not been particularly kind to Chalcedon.
While Kadıköy appears to have been a quiet Greek settlement during the Ottoman era, we see it begin to expand as a residential area and develop its infrastructure in the second half of the 19th century, particularly following the discovery of the Moda Peninsula by prominent Levantine families.
We designed our route to follow a zigzagging course around Moda’s grid layout. It begins on Saturday 17 October at 1pm (Turkish time) in the park opposite Moda Primary School (see map in flyer), and lasts approx. 3 hours.
Flyer
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