Wooden Architecture of Constantinople

On this page you will find a selection of photo reports about the few remaining authentic streets with wooden buildings of the late Ottoman Constantinople, which I discovered while walking around the Eternal City. Unfortunately, there are very few of them left. It is possible that by the time of viewing some objects are no longer there.

Kariye Bostanı Sokak

After visiting the monastery of Khora (Kariye Camii), be sure to take a look at the street that leads from the monastery park to the city walls. Here you will see wooden houses of traditional Ottoman architecture, painted in bright colors...read more

Tavukhane Sokak

In the south-western corner of the Hippodrome Square (At Meydanı) begins a street built up with wooden houses from the end of the Ottoman era. The main attraction of the street is a row of two-storey small houses, painted in bright colors...read more

Akbıyık Değirmeni Sokak

I was led to this street by a map from Sergei Ivanov's remarkable book In Search of Constantinople. The street is located south of the Blue Mosque, starting from Akbıyık Caddesi and running westward parallel to the railway line...read more

Cankurtaran Meydanı

Yeni Saraçhane Sokak led me to the square, which is the center of the area that occupies most of the Sultanahmet Peninsula. The Cankurtaran quarter has been the center of the city since ancient times, it housed the Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors, the remains of which we are looking for on today's walk...read more

Cinci Square

One block west of Little Hagia Sophia is the neat modern Cinci Meydani square...read more

Şehsuvar Bey Street

From Cinci Square (Cinci Meydanı), I headed to Kadırga Parkı, which is located one and a half hundred meters to the northeast. These two public spaces are connected by a very interesting street, built up with two-storey houses, mostly wooden...read more

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