Kasımpaşa () is a working-class neighbourhood on the northern shore of the Golden Horn within the
Beyoğlu
Beyoğlu (; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920 (2022). It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the o ...
district of
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
,
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, on the European side of the city. Once best known for its naval bases and shipyards, it is a rapidly evolving area, likely to be greatly changed by the Haliçport-Tersane Istanbul projects taking shape along its shoreline in 2022.
Adjoining areas include
Piyalepaşa,
Hasköy and
Şişhane to which it is connected by a Metro tunnel. Also nearby are
Dolapdere Dolapdere is a quarter of Beyoğlu district in central Istanbul, Turkey. It is surrounded by the quarters of Taksim, Kasımpaşa, Pangaltı and Kurtuluş.
Sites
* There is a museum dedicated to the memory of Adam Mickiewicz, the 19th century Pol ...
and
Kurtulüs which was founded, as Tatavla, by Greek from Chios who chose to leave their homes in Kasımpaşa for higher ground after their church was turned into a mosque. The Golden Horn ferry stops at Kasımpaşa connecting it with
Üsküdar
Üsküdar () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 35 km2, and its population is 524,452 (2022). It is a large and densely populated district on the Anatolian (Asian) shore of the Bosphorus. It is border ...
,
Karaköy
Karaköy (), the modern name for the old Galata, is a commercial quarter in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey, located at the northern part of the Golden Horn mouth on the European side of Bosphorus.
Karaköy is one of the oldest and mo ...
,
Fener
Fener (; ), also spelled Phanar, is a quarter midway up the Golden Horn in the district of Fatih in Istanbul, Turkey. The Turkish name is derived from the Greek word "phanarion" (Medieval Greek: Φανάριον), meaning lantern, streetlight o ...
, Balat,
Ayvansaray,
Eyüp and
Sütlüce.
Kasımpaşa is the lowest valued property on the Istanbul
Monopoly board game.
History
In 1453
Sultan Mehmed II
Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481.
In Mehmed II's first reign, ...
succeeding in breaching the defences of the Golden Horn by having his ships pulled overland from near Dolmabahçe to what became Kasımpaşa where they could be relaunched into the water. He went on to capture Constantinople from the Byzantines.
Kasımpaşa takes its name from one of
Suleyman the Magnificent's military leaders of the early 16th-century who was rewarded by being given the area after he seize Buda for the sultan in 1530. The area was soon developed to house the
Imperial Arsenal and docks of the
Ottoman Navy
The Ottoman Navy () or the Imperial Navy (), also known as the Ottoman Fleet, was the naval warfare arm of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the Ottomans first reached the sea in 1323 by capturing Praenetos (later called Karamürsel ...
, home to 120 ships. At the time this was still a very green area and soon a wooden Tersane Sarayı (Shipyard Palace) was built here so that
Sultan Ahmed I would have a place to rest when he travelled here to practise archery. The only trace of it now is the Aynalıkavak Kasrı building which is open to the public.
A
Turkish Naval High School
The Naval High School () was a Turkish Turkish Navy, naval high school located on Heybeliada, Heybeliada Island (the second largest of the Prince Islands, Princes' Islands) in the Sea of Marmara, to the southeast of Istanbul, Turkey.
The school t ...
was founded here in 1773 to teach geometry and navigation to naval and civilian merchant captains on board a galleon anchored at Kasımpaşa. In 1785 Admiral
Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Paşa had a huge barracks built here that survives to this day just inland from the Kasımpaşa ferry terminal.
In 1821, much of the Kasımpaşa quarter was destroyed by fire. The
Turkish Naval Academy was housed here from 1838 to 1850.
As the Empire declined, the shipyard became neglected. Until the reign of Sultan
Abdülaziz
Abdulaziz (; ; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was 1876 Ottoman coup d'état, overthrown in a government coup. He was a son of Sultan Mahmud II and succeeded his brother ...
the Ottoman Navy still had 21 battleships and 173 other types of warship, making it the third largest navy in the world after the British and French ones. However, following the
economic crisis of 1875 (which sparked the
Great Eastern Crisis
The Great Eastern Crisis of 1875–1878 began in the Ottoman Empire's Rumelia, administrative territories in the Balkan Peninsula in 1875, with the outbreak of several uprisings and wars that resulted in the intervention of international powers, ...
in the
Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire) such a large navy became a drain on the Ottoman treasury.
In the 1860s the Ottoman-Venetian Jewish banker
Abraham Salomon Camondo
Count Abraham Salomon Camondo (1781, Istanbul – 30 March 1873, Paris) was a Jewish Ottoman-Italian financier and philanthropist, and the patriarch of the Camondo family.
Life and career
He was born in Constantinople, during the Ottoman ...
had a palace built for himself on the waterfront. This ''Kamondo Sarayı'' (Camondo Palace) was designed by the Ottoman-Armenian architect
Sarkis Balyan. It went on to become the headquarters of the Ottoman Ministry for the Navy (Bahriye Nezareti), before becoming the headquarters of the Istanbul
Naval Command on 14 November 1922 after the
Armistice of Mudanya
The Armistice of Mudanya () was an agreement between Turkey (the Grand National Assembly of Turkey) on the one hand, and Italy, France, and Britain on the other hand, signed in the town of Mudanya, in the province of Bursa, on 11 October 1922. Th ...
.
[Official website of the Turkish Navy: General history of the Turkish naval forces](_blank)
/ref>
During the WWI, the area of Kasımpaşa suffered several times in 1918 because of the British bombings of İstanbul.
During the riots of 1955, Greek dwellings in Kasımpaşa were attacked and looted.
Until recently, the old arsenal still carried out ship repairs. However, in 2022 work on turning it into a cultural hub was well underway.
Notable residents
Facing Kasımpaşa ferry terminal is a statue of an Ottoman dignitary with his pet lion at his side. This is Cezayiri (Algerian) Gazi Hasan Paşa, the 18th-century admiral responsible for building th
Kalyoncu Kişlası
(Kalyoncu Barracks) behind him in 1785.
The Ottoman banker Abraham Kamondo lived for some time in a waterside palace in Kasımpaşa.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...
, was born in Kasımpaşa and attended the local İmam Hatip religious school.
Modern Kasımpaşa
During the early years of the Republic
A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
, industrialisation of its shores rendered the Golden Horn very unattractive, and Kasimpasa itself was a solidly working-class neighbourhood and home, especially to sailors and people working in the shipyard. In the early 21st century, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality began investing in Kasımpaşa, building a new football stadium, sports complex, swimming pool, library and recreation facilities, with fitness and health facilities available to the public.
In 2022 work was underway to convert the 18th-century Kalyoncu Kışlası barracks complex into a new headquarters (Hükümet Konağı) for the Beyoğlu Municipality.
Haliçport-Tersane Istanbul
Much of the Golden Horn shoreline of Kasimpaşa is currently being converted into the Haliçport-Tersane Istanbul complex of shops, hotels and restaurants, partially reusing some of the old shipyard buildings and partly building new ones. A new marina forms part of the plans which also envisage the Sadberk Hanım Museum
The Sadberk Hanım Museum () is a private museum on the shores of the Bosporus, Bosphorus in Büyükdere, Sarıyer, the Büyükdere neighbourhood of Sarıyer district in Istanbul, Turkey. It was established by the Vehbi Koç Foundation in memory ...
moving from its current location in Büyükdere on the Bosphorus to the shores of the Golden Horn where it will complement the
Kasımpaşa Spor Football Club
The neighbourhood has become synonymous with the local football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
team Kasımpaşa Spor Kulübü, originally founded in 1921, which now plays in the Süper Lig
The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...
. Its home matches take place in the 13,500 seat, multi-purpose Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium (also known as Kasımpaşa Stadium) is a multi-use stadium in the Kasımpaşa neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey. It is currently used mostly for football matches, and is the home stadium of Kasımpaşa S.K. The st ...
, opened in 2005 and named after Turkish President
The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye (), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national government and is the commander-in-chief of the ...
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...
.
Local attractions
Aynalıkavak Kasrı is a pavilion in wooded grounds close to the shore of the Golden Horn. The only remaining piece of the early 17th-century Tersane Sarayı (Shipyard Palace) which had been greatly extended at the start of the 18th century, it contains a small museum of musical instruments.
The Güzelce Kasım Pasa Cami complex, also known as the Cami-i Kebir, in the centre of Kasımpaşa's shopping area, was originally designed by Mimar Sinan
Mimar Sinan (; , ; – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha (title), Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman Empire, Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman ...
in 1533-34 but was completely rebuilt in the 19th century after a fire. In 2022 it was undergoing major restoration work. The Büyük Hamam (large bathhouse) attached to the mosque is still in service today.
Neither the historic Kalyoncu Kışlası barracks not the Bahriye Nezareti (naval headquarters) was open to the public in 2022.
References
External links
*
{{coord, 41, 03, N, 28, 59, E, display=title, region:TR_type:city
Quarters of Beyoğlu
Istanbul pogrom
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan