Information about Galata

Galata Tower was built in 1348 at the apex of the Genoese citadel

Genoese houses from the early 1300s in the back streets of Galata

Galata or Galatae is a district in Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey. Galata is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn, the inlet which separates it from the historic peninsula of old Constantinople. The Golden Horn is crossed by several bridges, most notably the Galata Bridge. Galata (also known as Pera back then) was a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453. The famous Galata Tower was built by the Genoese in 1348 at the northernmost and highest point of the citadel.

There are several theories concerning the origin of the name Galata. According to the Italians, the name comes from Calata (meaning downward slope) as the district is sloped and goes downwards to the sea from a hilltop. The Greeks believe that the name comes either from Galaktos (meaning milk, as the area was used by shepherds in the early medieval period) or from the word Galat (meaning Celtic in Greek) as the Celtic tribe of Galatians were thought to have camped here during the Hellenistic period before settling into Galatia in central Anatolia. The inhabitants of Galatia are famous for the Epistle to the Galatians and the Dying Galatian statue.

Arap Mosque, originally built as the Dominican Church of St. Paul in 1233

In history, Galata is often called Pera which comes from the old Greek name for the place, Peran en Sykais, literally 'the Fig Field on the Other Side'. Much later in Byzantine times Galata became significant as the site of the Megalos Pyrgos (Great Tower) from which an iron chain could be raised in times of war to block entry to the Golden Horn. This tower was destroyed during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, but a new tower was later built by the Genoese on a different nearby site as the Christea Turris (Tower of Christ) and survives to this day (see: Galata Tower). From 1273 to 1453, when it was captured by the Ottomans in the Siege of Constantinople, 'Pera' was a Genoese colony. The ruins of the Palace of the Genoese podestà Montani de Marinis, known as the Palazzo del Comune (Palace of the Municipality) in the Genoese period and built in 1314, still stands in a narrow street behind the famous Bankalar Caddesi (Banks Street) which was the financial center of the Ottoman Empire and has rows of Ottoman-era bank buildings, including the headquarters of the Ottoman Central Bank. Several ornaments which were originally on the facade of the Genoese Palace were used to embellish these 19th century bank buildings in the late Ottoman period. Another famous building in Galata is the Church of St. Paul (1233) which was built by the Dominican priests of the Catholic Church during the Latin control of Constantinople (1204-1261). The building is known today as the Arap Camii (Arab Mosque) because it was given by Sultan Bayezid II to the Arabs of Spain who fled the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and came to Istanbul.

At present, Galata is a quarter within the borough of Beyoğlu in Istanbul.

Galatasaray S.K., one of the most famous football clubs of Turkey, gets its name from this quarter and was established in 1905 in the nearby Galatasaray Square in Pera (Beyoğlu), where Galatasaray Lisesi (Galatasaray High School), formerly known as the Mekteb-i Sultani (School of the Sultans) also stands. Galatasaray literally means Galata Palace.

Images from Galata

Coordinates:

State Party Turkey
Type Cultural
Criteria i, ii, iii, iv
Reference 356
Region Europe and North America

Inscription History
Inscription 1985 (9th Session)
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Motto
Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh
Peace at Home, Peace in the World
Anthem
İstiklâl Marşı
The Anthem of Independence
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Golden Horn (Turkish: Haliç, Greek: Χρυσόν Κέρας – Chrysón Kéras) is an inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming a natural harbor.
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inlet is a body of water, usually seawater, which has characteristics of one or more of the following:

a bay
a cove
an estuary
a firth
a fjord
a geo
a sea loch or sea pea
a sound

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Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis, or Πόλις, Polis
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The Galata Bridge (in Turkish Galata Köprüsü) is a bridge that spans the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey. From the end of the 19th century in particular, the bridge has featured in Turkish literature, theater, poetry and novels.
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Pera may refer to:

Places

Pera Orinis, a village in Cyprus
Pêra, a Portuguese parish in the district of Faro in the Algarve
Beyoğlu, a district in Istanbul that used to be called Pera.

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The Republic of Genoa (Italian: Repubblica di Genova) was an independent state in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast from the 11th century to 1797, when it was invaded by armies of Revolutionary France under Napoleon.
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1273 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1273
MCCLXXIII
Ab urbe condita 2026
Armenian calendar 722
ԹՎ ՉԻԲ
Bah' calendar -571 – -570
Buddhist calendar 1817
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14th century - 15th century - 16th century
1420s 1430s 1440s - 1450s - 1460s 1470s 1480s
1450 1451 1452 - 1453 - 1454 1455 1456

:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
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Galata Tower (Turkish: Galata Kulesi), also called Christea Turris (Tower of Christ) by the Genoese and Megalos Pyrgos (The Great Tower) by the Byzantines, is located in Istanbul, Turkey, to the north of the Golden Horn.
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1348 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1348
MCCCXLVIII
Ab urbe condita 2101
Armenian calendar 797
ԹՎ ՉՂԷ
Bah' calendar -496 – -495
Buddhist calendar 1892
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Celts, normally pronounced /kɛlts/ (see article on pronunciation), is widely used to refer to the members of any of the peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages or descended from those who did.
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Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus, on the south by Lycaonia and Cappadocia, and on the west by the remainder of Phrygia, the eastern part of which the Gauls
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The term Hellenistic (derived from Ἕλλην Héllēn, the Greeks' traditional self-described ethnic name) was established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of
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This article has been tagged since September 2007.
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The Epistle to the Galatians is a book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia.
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Dying Gaul (in Italian: Galata Morente) is an ancient Roman marble copy of a lost ancient Greek statue, thought to have been executed in bronze, that was commissioned some time between 230 BC and 220 BC by Attalos I of Pergamon to honor his victory over the
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Pera may refer to:

Places

Pera Orinis, a village in Cyprus
Pêra, a Portuguese parish in the district of Faro in the Algarve
Beyoğlu, a district in Istanbul that used to be called Pera.

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The old Tower of Galata (Greek: Megalos Pyrgos, literally Great Tower) was a tower which stood on the north side of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, inside the citadel of Galata.
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Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was originally designed to conquer Jerusalem through an invasion of Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of the West invaded and conquered the Greek Orthodox city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire.
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1204 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1204
MCCIV
Ab urbe condita 1957
Armenian calendar 653
ԹՎ ՈԾԳ
Bah' calendar -640 – -639
Buddhist calendar 1748
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Ottoman Empire or Ottoman Caliphate (1299 to 1922) (Old Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish:
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sieges of Constantinople during the history of the Byzantine Empire. Two sieges resulted in the capture of Constantinople from Greek rule: in 1204 by crusaders, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II.
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Comune di Genoa

Coat of arms

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