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Büyük Hendek Sok, Beyoğlu
Tel. (0212) 293 8180
Open: 9am- 7pm daily
Restaurant and Nightclub
Open: 8am- 12am daily
Galata Tower, or Galata Tower Museum as it was known after it was
used as a museum, is a tower located in the Beyoğlu district of
Istanbul. It takes its name from the Galata district where it is
located. Built as a watchtower within the Galata Walls, the tower
serves as an exhibition venue and museum as of 2020, after being
used for different purposes in different periods. It is one of the
symbolic buildings of both Beyoğlu and Istanbul.
The Genoese,
who were in alliance with the Byzantine Empire, established a colony
called "Pera" in Galata, located north of the Golden Horn, in 1267,
and expanded the area of dominance of this colony over time with the
permissions given by the Byzantine Empire. The tower, which was
called the "Tower of the Holy Cross" (Turris Sancte Crucis) at that
time because of the cross on its top, was built as a part of the
fortifications in the region between 1335 and 1349, by increasing
its area of dominance towards the hill in the northeast direction,
contrary to these permissions. The war that broke out between the
two states that year ended with the treaty signed the following
year, and the hill on which the tower was located was left under
Genoese control. After Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman
Empire on May 29, 1453, the Genoese in Pera handed over the colony
to the Ottomans without any resistance. Although some damage was
done to the fortifications in Galata, including the tower, Ottoman
Sultan II. With Mehmed's decree, the destruction in the tower was
stopped and the destroyed parts were rebuilt. The tower, which was
damaged in the earthquake in 1509, was repaired in 1510. In the 16th
and 17th centuries, it was used as a place to hold prisoners of war
and a supply warehouse, and as of the 18th century, it was used as a
fire tower by the Mehterhane Corps and fire watchers.
During
the repair works carried out after the fire in 1794, the design of
the tower was changed and the upper part was converted into a
coffeehouse. After the fire in 1831, its design was changed once
again. After its roof collapsed in a storm in 1875, two wooden
masonry floors were built above the top floor and this section began
to be used to observe and report fires in the city. With the
restoration work between 1965 and 1967, the tower was arranged as a
touristic structure with floors serving different purposes, while
the roof of the tower was renewed similar to the design between 1832
and 1876. During this period, it was rented from the Istanbul
Municipality and started to be operated by the company owned by the
Unal Brothers and their heirs in the following period. A restoration
was carried out on the exterior in 1999-2000. In 2013, BELTUR,
affiliated with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, took over the
operation. During this period, there was a cafe and a restaurant on
the top two floors of the tower. In the same year, it was included
in the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. In 2019,
its ownership and operation passed to the General Directorate of
Foundations. After the work carried out in 2020, the tower was
organized as a museum and exhibition space.
The cylindrical
body of the Romanesque style masonry tower, whose height to the tip
of the roof is 62.59 m, is made of stone. It has 11 floors,
including a basement, ground floor and mezzanine floor. While there
is an elevator between the ground floor and the sixth floor, there
are stone stairs from the ground floor to the fourth floor, and
steel construction stairs from the sixth to the eighth floor. The
cone-shaped roof covering the top is reinforced concrete. Today, the
ground floor of the tower serves as a ticket control and security
point, and the entrance to the elevator that reaches the sixth floor
is also located here. While the first floor is the museum store, the
next three floors contain a simulation area with a screen showing an
animation of Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi's soaring from the Galata Tower,
and works of art depicting the period when the tower was used by
Takiyüddin; Photographs of the War of Independence; Information and
works about Galata Tower and Walls; They are permanent museums and
exhibition areas containing works related to the Galata Tower and
Istanbul. On the seventh floor, which is the temporary exhibition
area after the sixth floor, which is a transition area, there is a
model showing a part of Istanbul and viewing binoculars positioned
in front of the windows, while the eighth floor is designed as an
observation terrace. The exterior of the tower and the area
surrounding the tower are used to raise awareness, commemorate or
celebrate on some special and specific days.
Around 527, the old Galata Tower was built under the
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and served as a sighting tower. The
old tower was destroyed in 1204 during the conquest of
Constantinople. Then in 1348-49 a new Galata Tower was built as the
Christ Tower at Galata's highest point and the Genoese used the hill
as a fortress built to defend Galata from Constantinople. The Galata
Tower withstood a number of earthquakes, storms and fires and even
repeated damage.
In 1453 the Ottomans took over the tower and
stationed the Janissary troops here. In the 15th century the tower
was used as a prison for prisoners of war and in the 16th century as
a watchtower.
After the end of the Ottoman Empire, it was
made into a fire station in the 1960s.
Architect Köksal
Anadol restored the tower in 1967 and restored the original plan
after many years, he even reconstructed the conical roof of the
Galata Tower. Today, the nine-storey tower with its cylindrical body
still dominates the north bank of the Golden Horn and is one of the
most beautiful vantage points over Istanbul. Two elevators take you
to the seventh floor. A wooden spiral staircase leads from there to
the last two floors, where there is also a restaurant with a
360-degree city panorama and access to the viewing terrace.
Reception
A water tower was built in Niederlehme near Berlin in
1902, the design of which is clearly based on the Galata Tower (as
it was then, without the conical roof). Whether the builder or the
architect of the water tower had a personal connection to the model
is unclear.
The Genoese, who were in alliance with the Byzantine Empire,
established a colony called "Pera" in Galata, located north of the
Golden Horn, in 1267. The Genoese, who expanded their sovereignty
towards the hill in the northeast of the region without permission,
built walls and towers surrounded by moats on the slopes of this hill
between 1335 and 1349. The head tower of the city walls, known today as
the Galata Tower, was built in 1348, and was built in 1348, which, in
addition to being a watchtower, aimed to protect the coastal part of the
colony on the plain in case of a siege from land. In front of the tower,
adjacent to the building on both sides, there was a barracks protruding
from the straight wall line in a semicircular shape. This section, where
four city walls intersect and where the main entrance of Pera is
located, was the last fortification built before Pera came under the
control of the Ottoman Empire, with its construction completed on April
1, 1452, according to the plaque on it. During this period, the tower
was called "Turris S. [Sancte] Crucis" ("Tower of the Holy Cross")
because of the cross on top.
In August 1348, a war broke out
between the Byzantines and the Genoese, sparked by trade disputes. After
the war ended with the Byzantine victory in 1349, peace was established,
and in the same year, Byzantine Emperor VI. With a decree issued by John
I, control of the hill where the Galata Tower was located was handed
over to the Genoese.
After Constantinople came under Ottoman rule on May 29, 1453, the
Genoese in Pera left the colony to Ottoman control without any
resistance. The damage done to the top of the tower during this period
was caused by the Ottoman Sultan II. It was stopped after Mehmed's edict
for Pera, and within the scope of the works carried out by Zağanos
Pasha, the tower was raised again and the cross on top was replaced with
the Ottoman flag.
The earthquake in 1509 caused some damage to
the fortifications in Galata, including the Galata Tower. With the
completion of the repair works under the leadership of architect
Hayreddin in mid-1510, the tower was raised again. Two brick belts
located on the body of the tower, at a height of 13.20 m (beginning of
the second floor) and 17.17 m (beginning of the third floor) from the
ground, are considered as traces of the renovations made after this
earthquake, and the scope of this renovation varies according to
sources.
In the 16th century, the Galata Tower and other bastions
on the Galata Walls were used as a dungeon and shelter for Christian
prisoners of war working in the shipyards in Kasımpaşa. In his
Seyahatname, dated to the 17th century, Evliya Çelebi writes that the
tower used to serve as a dungeon and then as a shipyard warehouse.
Takiyüddin also carried out some work on the tower before the
construction of the observatory. By the 18th century, the tower began to
be used as a fire tower by the Mehterhane Corps and fire watchers.
Due to the damage caused by the fire on July 27, 1794, the height of
the tower was shortened and its design was changed. Within the scope of
these works, protruding rooms, sofas and divanhouses were added to each
side of the top floor and this part was turned into a coffeehouse. A
kiosk was placed to announce fires, while the attic was used as a
dovecote. The tower was damaged in a fire that broke out on 2-3 August
1831. The upper part of the tower was repaired with a different design -
except for the roof, which collapsed in the storm of 1875 - and gained
its current appearance.
A repair was made to the roof of the
tower in 1853 or 1854. During the construction works of the building in
1864, which was to be used by the Sixth Municipal Department responsible
for the administration of Galata and Pera, which was established in
December 1857, the courtyard around the tower, the gates in the city
walls and the city walls extending towards the shore were demolished and
the ditches were filled with the decision taken on 30 November 1863.
After its roof collapsed in a storm in 1875, a two-story masonry
section with one room on each was built on the top floor. The top of the
castle began to be used both as a fire news center for the fire brigade
established in the city in 1874 and as a communication center for the
naval forces.
After the declaration of the republic in Turkey in 1923, the tower
continued to be used by the fire brigade and naval forces. The time
globe at the British Naval Hospital, which was dismantled in February
1930 to be transferred to the Galata Tower and placed on top of the
tower in March 1930, became operational in November 1934.
It was
decided that the tower, which was evacuated in the winter of 1959-1960
after the beams of the wooden rooms at the top rotted and collapsed,
would be transformed into a touristic facility by carrying out repair
and restoration works, upon the initiative of the Mayor of Istanbul
Municipality, Haşim İşcan. Yapıtaş won the tender held for the works on
September 15, 1964, and the tower was reopened with a ceremony held on
September 28, 1967.
Along with the works, the basement floor was
reorganized as a service floor. While the ground floor becomes an
entrance floor; Two elevators were added opposite the entrance axis,
reaching from this floor to the sixth floor. The first floor is an
oriental coffee house, the second floor is a museum about the history of
the tower, the third floor is a floor with sales sections where
touristic goods are sold, the fourth floor is a tavern named Genoese
Tavern, the fifth floor is a kitchen to be used by the food and beverage
venues in the tower, the sixth floor is a floor with sales sections
where touristic items are sold. The eighth floor, which is the last
floor accessible to visitors, was designed as a lobby with toilets and
cloakrooms, and the eighth floor was designed as a nightclub. Ünal
Kardeşler, who built the restaurant section, rented the operating rights
of the tower from the Istanbul Municipality for five years as a result
of the tender in February 1968. Following the arrangements made, the
tower was opened as a tourist facility on May 30, 1969. Kardeşler's
rental agreement with the Municipality was renewed every year after the
first five years.
Republic of Turkey dated 3 September 1989. With
the decision of the Council of Ministers, which came into force after
being published in the Official Gazette, a "tourism center" named Galata
Tower and its Surroundings was created and the tower and its
surroundings came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Tourism.
At a meeting of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Council held
in October 1996, it was decided to convert the tower into a museum and
give its ownership to the Municipality's Directorate of Libraries and
Museums. Pekerler İnşaat won the tender held that year to restore the
tower and turn it into a museum. The lawsuit filed the same year to
evict the Ünal Kardeşler company, which operated the tower, from the
tower was rejected. In December 1997, it was stated that such a change
could not be made without the permission of the Ministry of Culture, and
an instruction was given to stop the application because it was not
deemed appropriate to use the tower as a museum. Although the
Municipality attempted to build a library in the tower in 1998, this
initiative was rejected by the Monuments Board.
Following the
permission decision dated 7 May 1999 issued by the Istanbul No. 1
Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board, the tower was reopened
for use on 13 November 2000, following the restoration works on the
exterior completed in June 2000 by Peker İnşaat, which won the tender in
1996. Pekerler İnşaat won the tender opened by Istanbul Metropolitan
Municipality in 2000 for the interior restoration. However, the project
submitted by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality to the Istanbul No.
1 Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board for this interior
restoration, which envisaged turning the tower into a museum, was
rejected by the Board on the grounds that there was no permission given
by the Ministry of Culture, which should have given permission to
establish a museum. Following this, in the same year, a new project
including an exhibition hall, souvenir sales section and cafe was
prepared and presented to the Board. The application made to the Board
of Monuments for the arrangement of the top two floors of the tower with
a Turkish coffee house and the other floors with souvenir departments
and other touristic elements was approved by the Board in February 2004.
Republic of Turkey dated 28 March 2006. By the decision of the
Council of Ministers published in the Official Gazette, Galata Tower and
its Surroundings were defined as a "renewal area". Republic of Turkey
dated 6 July 2006. With the decision of the Council of Ministers
published in the Official Gazette, it was determined that this area
would be expropriated by Beyoğlu Municipality within the scope of the
renewal area works. Although the region was among the parts of Beyoğlu
declared as an urban protected area by the decision of the Istanbul
Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board No. I dated July 7,
1993, it was one of the seven regions outside the planning area.
Legal attempts, which have been ongoing since 1996 with the aim of
removing the operators of the tower from the tower, ended with the
transfer of the business to BELTUR, affiliated with the Municipality, as
of April 16, 2013, after the lease agreement between the Istanbul
Metropolitan Municipality and the Kardeşler family, the operator of the
tower, was not renewed by the Municipality. As a result of the
renovations carried out by the municipality on the top two floors of the
tower, the eighth floor was turned into a restaurant and the seventh
floor was turned into a cafe.
With the decision taken on June 21,
2013, during the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee, Galata
Tower was included among the architectural works in the series called
"Castle and Walled Settlements on the Genoese Trade Route from the
Mediterranean to the Black Sea" on Turkey's UNESCO Temporary World
Heritage list. took.
In its letter dated April 17, 2019, the General Directorate of
Foundations made an application to transfer the ownership of the tower
to them on behalf of the Kule-i Zemin Foundation, based on Article 30 of
the Foundations Law. As of May 13, 2019, the ownership of the tower
passed to the General Directorate of Foundations on behalf of Kule-i
Zemin Foundation and the Municipality remained as a tenant in the tower.
While the legal initiative initiated by the Istanbul Metropolitan
Municipality against this transfer was inconclusive, the lease agreement
issued in the name of BELTUR expired as of December 31, 2019.
Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced on January
18, 2020 that expropriation works will be carried out around the tower
and a square will be created around the tower within the scope of the
tourism, culture and art project called "Beyoğlu Culture Road", which
includes the Galata Tower. While the process of evacuating the Istanbul
Metropolitan Municipality from the tower was initiated as of April 2020,
the legal initiative taken by the Municipality against this resulted
negatively, and as of May 16, 2020, the ownership of the tower passed to
the Istanbul Foundations 1st Regional Directorate on behalf of the
Kule-i Zemin Foundation.
ES Yapı, which won the tender for the
restoration works, started its work as of June 30, 2020. While all the
elements and decorations added to the interior during and after the
works in the 1960s were removed, restoration and renovation works were
carried out on both the interior and exterior. Organized as an
exhibition center and museum, the tower was put into service again under
the name Galata Tower Museum on October 6, 2020, the anniversary of the
Liberation of Istanbul.
Within the scope of the works, a ticket
office with the design of the Taksim-Tünel nostalgic tram was placed in
the square outside the tower. The ground floor was designed to consist
of a ticket control and security point and the entrance to the elevator
that reaches the sixth floor. The first floor was turned into a museum
store. The second floor was designed as a simulation area, with a screen
showing an animation of Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi floating from the Galata
Tower, and began to include an exhibition area about this and the period
when the tower was used as an observatory. The third floor was renewed
as permanent exhibition areas where photographs of the War of
Independence were exhibited, the fourth floor was used as information
and works about the Galata Tower and Walls, and the fifth floor was
renewed as permanent exhibition areas where works related to the Galata
Tower and Istanbul were exhibited. A model showing a part of Istanbul
and viewing binoculars positioned in front of the windows were placed on
the seventh floor, which is a temporary exhibition area and reached
after the sixth floor, which was used as a transition area. The eighth
floor was designed as an observation terrace.
Its location, exterior architecture and body
Galata Tower is the
building number 2 located on Büyük Hendek Street in the Bereketzade
District of Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. It is located on a hill at an
altitude of 35 m, in the Galata district that gave it its name. The
height of the Romanesque style cylindrical masonry tower from the ground
to the tip of the roof is 62.59 m. The foundation of the building, which
is located on a rocky and clayey-schist soil, is made of solid stone.
The entrance door on the southern axis, which is above the ground, is
reached by stairs with marble steps on both sides. On the entrance door
of the tower with a jamb in the Ampire style made of marble, there is an
inscription on which a poem by the poet Pertev is engraved, which is
about the repair and restoration works carried out in 1831-1832. The
text written in the celi talik style in the inscription, which was
engraved with the relief technique on marble by Nuri Dede, consists of
16 lines divided into 4 sheets, in 4 lines with dendanted cartouches.
The three ellipse cartouches on the text read "Ya Hafiz", "Mashallah"
and "Ya Rafi" respectively. II, which appeared earlier in the
inscription. Mahmud's signature was engraved after the declaration of
the republic. The following text is written in capital letters on the
plaque prepared by Emin Barın, which was hung in 1953, coinciding with
the 500th anniversary of the Conquest of Istanbul, following the
initiative of the Conquest of Istanbul Association, located on the
ground floor level of the exterior of the south-facing façade of the
tower:
« On the morning of Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the Genoese
presented the keys of the Galata colony to Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror,
and the delivery of Galata was completed on Friday, June 1.
Istanbul
Conquest Association. 1953
EB »
In the square outside the
tower, there is a ticket office with the design of the Taksim-Tünel
nostalgic tram. Bereketzade Fountain, which was removed from its old
place in 1957, is located adjacent to the ruins of the city walls around
the tower and with its front facing the tower square.
The inner
diameter of the ground floor, which has an area of 208 m2, is 8.95 m and
the outer diameter is 16.45 m. The wall thickness, which is 3.75 m up to
the fourth floor, decreases to 3 m from this floor due to the tower
being built with an outward slope. Although a 5 m section of the
external walls at the level of the entrance door loses its circularity,
this situation decreases until the first molding and the structure takes
a circular shape again. At the elevation of 4.2 m and at the entrance
axis, there is a channel with a brick vault on top, measuring 72 × 150
cm. Anadol states that it is possible that these channels previously
went outside the tower and continued under the walls, providing a
connection between the fortifications.
The interior architecture
of the tower and the materials used on the walls continue in the same
way until the fourth floor. While the irregular battlements on the floor
plans and the flatness on the south façade continue uninterruptedly from
the ground floor to the fourth floor, from this floor onwards, a
completely cylindrical shape is observed in the body with regular
battlements. There are two brick belts on the body of the tower, at
elevations of 13.20 m (beginning of the second floor) and 17.17 m
(beginning of the third floor). The part below the first generation; It
has rough-hewn and square-shaped, irregularly structured stone blocks of
different types, dark yellow, light brown, dark gray and dark blue, with
brick fragments inserted between them. In the part above this belt,
there are relatively smaller and more finely carved, generally
horizontal rectangular shaped and relatively regular stone blocks, but
there are no brick pieces among the stones. While the most commonly used
stone type is limestone, yellow and brown tones are almost never
encountered in the stones in this section, dark gray and bluish colors
are still present. Based on these data, Sağlam stated that "it is
possible to say that neither the first generation nor the second
generation alone represents the level separating the Genoese and Ottoman
periods." It indicates that it has an irregular structure with a higher
level in the inner part. Based on the stonework that changed after the
first generation, he writes that the damage and material losses on the
exterior reached up to the second floor, that the thick-walled part of
the body and the vaulted gallery inside were "largely" preserved up to
the fourth floor, and that the damage on the exterior from the second
floor was repaired. He states that as of the fourth floor, the entire
level was leveled and a new section with thinner walls and a different
stair system began, and the brick belts served as beams to provide a
balanced weight transfer between the repaired parts and the original
body walls.
In the south-facing section of the second brick belt,
there is an Ottoman decoration made of bricks. A different order has
occurred with the diagonal cracks at the joints of this section.
According to Sağlam, this indicates that "there are actually at least
two phases, not a single phase, on the part that is assumed to remain
from the Genoese period."
A cone-shaped lead-coated reinforced
concrete roof covers the top of the tower. There are four windows on the
roof, each facing all four directions and their upper limits reaching an
elevation of 50.29 m. At the top, there is a gold-plated bronze finial,
which is 7.41 m tall according to Anadol's statement and 6.75 m tall
according to the statement of Şevket Usta, who manufactured it. A 50 cm
beacon with a flashing red light is placed at the top of this fin,
allowing it to be visible through a lightning rod.
The first four floors of the eleven-storey building, including one
basement, one ground floor and one mezzanine floor, are connected to
each other through a brick-vaulted gallery with stone stairs positioned
directly within the body walls and protected by epoxy-coated wood. In
the drilling excavations carried out within the scope of the studies in
the 1960s, no floor was found up to -4.3 m elevation, and a basement
floor was created at -3.8 m elevation by evacuating this section for the
purpose of foundation reinforcements. From here, the ground floor is
reached by a reinforced concrete staircase camouflaged with a circular
panel on the floor. 22 steps staircase leading from the ground floor to
the upper floors; It is 42 cm inside the inner face of the tower, 80 cm
wide and 150 cm high. On the ground floor, whose ceiling is covered with
hexagonal natural stone, two eight-person elevators are located on the
axis of the entrance door and against the wall opposite the door,
reaching up to the sixth floor. With the video wall technique applied in
elevator cabins, videos taken from the tower are played on screens
placed on the walls and ceilings. Above the reinforced concrete
mezzanine floor with Ampir profile railings at 4.45 m elevation, is the
first floor at 8.97 m elevation. The window openings of the first floor
measure 20 × 45 cm from the outside and 200 × 180 cm from the inside.
The second floor, located at an elevation of 13.20 m, has the same
architectural features as the first floor, except for its inner diameter
decreasing to 8.85 m.
There are chimneys in the niches of the
third floor wall, located at an elevation of 17.17 m, that "resemble"
Anadol's Zağanos Pasha Tower in the Rumeli Fortress. At the elevation of
20.80 m, there is the fourth floor with 14 rectangular windows. The
gallery section with brick work was positioned towards the south, which
is the safe direction facing the colony settlement, as it thinned the
body wall, thus ensuring that the wall was full thickness to meet
possible attacks from the outside. With this thinning, the inner
diameter increases to 10.4 m. The average dimensions of the bricks used
in the vaulted gallery of the first four floors are similar to those of
other 14th-century fortifications in Galata and to the average
dimensions of late Byzantine period bricks in the city. Sağlam sees it
as a "reasonable possibility" that local materials were used in the
construction of the tower. With this floor, the number of windows
increases to 7.
14 windows on the fifth floor starting at 24.35 m
elevation; 7 of them, placed for cannon firing, are circular with a
diameter of 35 cm, and the other 7 are 115 × 180 cm in size and have
pointed arches. All the windows on the floor are located from the
outside, inside niche pillars whose arches are made of brickwork. On the
sixth floor at 27.90 m elevation, which is the last of the wooden half
floors, there are 14 pointed arched windows, similar to those on the
lower floor but smaller in size. After this floor, you can reach the
hill mansion on the seventh floor at an elevation of 32.60 m. The sixth,
seventh and eighth floors are connected to each other by steel
construction stairs. The 14 windows on the floor are made up of 13
masonry pillars with a cross section of 120 × 225 cm, spaced 150 cm
apart and connected to each other by arches. The eighth floor, with an
internal width of 12.40 m at an elevation of 40.04 m, reaches up to an
elevation of 50.5 m. The 14 windows of this floor are formed by
connecting the legs with a cross section of 110 × 100 cm, located on the
same axes as the legs of the seventh floor, with 170 cm intervals
between them, with arches. On the exterior of the eighth floor, there is
a 1.20 m wide terrace created by the cross-section difference between
the two floors. On each of the 14 masonry bollards located on the axes
of the piers inside, there are stone spheres with a diameter of 35 cm,
with precautions taken by anchoring them against the possibility of
falling. There are Ampire decorations on the 110 cm high iron railings
between the bollards.
After the restoration in 2020, gypsum
plaster coatings were applied to the interior parts of the walls and
ceilings. Artifacts related to these are exhibited on the second floor,
which serves as a museum store, and on the third, fourth, fifth and
seventh floors, which serve as an exhibition area and museum. On the
seventh floor, there is a 1:2,500 scale model showing a part of Istanbul
and viewing binoculars positioned in front of the windows. There are
benches on the eighth floor, which is used as an observation terrace.
When its construction was completed, the tower was the main tower of
the walls of which it was a part. In front of the tower, adjacent to the
building on both sides, there was a barracks that protruded from the
straight wall line in a semicircular shape, and since the outer part of
the walls was surrounded by moats, it created a courtyard between it and
the tower, some ruins of which remain today. During the Genoese period,
there was a cross at the top of the tower. According to the traces on
it, the tower also had a wooden bridge that could be removed when
necessary, providing transportation between the inside of the city and
the outside of the moats, and which does not survive today.
The
tower is depicted in different ways in different versions of Cristoforo
Buondelmonti's Liber insularum Archipelagi, which are now available in
various archives, and there are inconsistencies between them. The
cylindrical structures in these depictions are closest to reality. On
the map of Constantinople in the copy of the National Library of
Marciana, dated around the 1420s and 1430s, the tower; It is depicted as
being higher than other towers, with its conical roof, upper floor
projecting with a series of blind arches, and cylindrical structure. On
the map in the Düsseldorf University and State Library copy of the same
work, dated between 1485 and 1490, there is a Genoese flag at the top of
the tower. Comparing these two depictions, Sağlam says; He points out
that in the first one, the "narrow and high" cone-shaped roof of the
tower is surrounded by a battlement, while in the second, the roof is
"much flatter and wider" and its eaves protrude from the battlements.
However, in the second copy, he states that "the tower has a single belt
that divides the body wall in half transversely, like a trace of repair"
and that this is an "assumption... as if confirming" the destruction and
repair in 1453.
When the region came under Ottoman rule in 1453,
the tower was subjected to destruction, which caused it to be shortened
by approximately 7.5 m, according to anonymous Ottoman sources cited by
Ahmed Vefik Pasha. Following the sultan's decree against Pera, this
destruction was stopped and the tower was raised again and the cross on
top was replaced with the Ottoman flag.
After the repair work on the tower, which was damaged after the earthquake in 1509, was completed in mid-1510, the tower was raised again. Two brick belts located on the body of the tower, at the elevations of 13.20 m (beginning of the second floor) and 17.17 m (beginning of the third floor), are considered as traces of the renovations made after this earthquake. Köksal Anadol and Ersin Arıoğlu state that the tower was rebuilt from these alignments by looking at these generations. Semavi Eyice, on the other hand, stated that the motifs created with bricks "bear a typical Ottoman ornamental character" and that the relatively "simple" first generation indicates a superficial repair carried out on the exterior of the tower; He writes that the upper part, starting from the second generation, was completely built during the Ottoman period. In the depiction of the Galata Tower in a miniature in Matrakçı Nasuh's work dated 1537; There are approximately 8 arched openings on the top pavilion of the tower, the floor above it and the top pavilion floor in 1/2 proportion.
The roof and upper floors of the tower were damaged due to the damage
caused by the fire on July 27, 1794. The height of the tower was reduced
by 1.9 m and the wall in this section was rebuilt. Within the scope of
these works, an Empire style mansion with approximately 1.5 m tall
glazed protrusions on each side of the top floor was built.
During the repair carried out after the destruction caused by the fire
on 2-3 August 1831, the design of the upper part of the tower was
changed. The four-cornered design was replaced by a sofa with 14
half-round arched windows on the walls, while a balcony with iron bars
surrounding the building was placed in front of the relatively smaller
floor with windows above it. From this hall, the upper floor was reached
by a forty-step staircase in the middle of the hall. A lead-covered
conical roof covered the second floor, which had 14 windows, while four
windows were placed on the roof.
After its roof collapsed in a
storm in 1875, two octagonal wooden masonry floors were built on the top
floor and a terrace was built on top of them, at an elevation of 51.65
m, and a flagpole was erected on top of these masonry floors. The spiral
staircase connecting these two floors was removed and a 45° inclined,
straight wooden staircase reaching the upper floor was replaced. A time
globe was placed at the top of the tower in March 1930.
During the restoration in 1965, the surroundings of the tower were
reserved for pedestrian circulation only and closed to traffic, while
also arranging to accommodate some tourist goods shops. The stairs
leading to the tower and the terrace in front of the entrance were
surrounded by iron railings between marble legs. The entrance door was
renewed with details "close to the characteristics of the period".
Wooden floors were replaced with reinforced concrete floors and
"generally" covered with natural stone. The steps of the stone stairs
were also covered with natural stones and the stairs were illuminated.
The wooden staircase in the middle of the seventh floor, which was
designed as a restaurant, was removed and steel construction stairs
connecting the sixth, seventh and eighth floors were installed, and
Ampir proportioned wooden railings and steps were added to them. The
frames of the floor windows and the decorations on the walls were
simplified, allowing the glass in the windows to be more visible. The
roof of the tower, although relatively less pointed, was built with a
lead-coated reinforced concrete system to carry the conical design
between 1832 and 1876, and a gold-plated bronze finial was placed on it.
The cracks in the tower walls were repaired and the carrier system was
strengthened with reinforced concrete elements. A relief of Matrakçı
Nasuh's miniature depicting Galata, made by Tankut Öktem and Haluk
Tezonar, was placed above the entrance of the elevator on the ground
floor.
The tower is one of the symbolic buildings of Beyoğlu and Istanbul.
It has a touristic value as it is both a symbolic building for the city
and the opportunity to see the city center from its top, and due to this
feature, restaurants, cafes and shops have been opened around it over
time.
The tower is illuminated with different colors from time to
time on various awareness-raising, celebration or commemoration days, or
various visuals are projected onto its body using the video mapping
technique, while some events are held in the area around the tower from
time to time. International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against
Women, World Cancer Day, World Diabetes Day, Purple Day, Green Crescent
Week, Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, Turkey's official holidays (23
April National Sovereignty and Children's Day, 19 May Commemoration of
Atatürk, Youth and Drawing attention to or commemorating certain days or
weeks such as Sports Day, 30 August Victory Day, 29 October Republic
Day), the anniversary of the Conquest of Istanbul, the anniversary of
the establishment of the General Directorate of Security; Stopping the
lighting for a while as part of Earth Hour, raising awareness for breast
cancer; Reaction to the July 15 Coup Attempt; Such practices are carried
out for purposes such as referencing the blooming season of the redbud,
one of the symbols of the city, promoting the Istanbul Youth Festival,
and celebrating Beşiktaş's Super League championship.
In addition
to these applications, the tower and its surroundings; A tower-like body
painting work aimed at the release of detained Revolutionary People's
Liberation Party-Front members, to raise awareness for schizophrenia,
protest against Operation Return to Life by members of the Popular
Front, anti-nuclear energy protest by Greenpeace members, SOCIAL/IST
2012 Social Media Within the scope of the day, it hosted a number of
events and protests such as an anti-nuclear energy protest, a protest
against the dismissal of members of the Electricity, Gas, Water and Dam
Employees Union, a protest against the opening of a tea garden in the
square where the tower is located, and a symbolic wearing of a blue tie
to draw attention to prostate cancer.
In some works, especially Turkish literature, there are some
references to the tower and expressions influenced by the tower. In the
following couplet, which means "[O my love!] Your lovers [only] show you
the flag, do not think that [they] are written as serdengeçti military
like Rezmî", Rezmî refers to the function of the tower to inform about
fires, and based on the motif of burning with the love of the lover,
other lovers only say " He explains that even though they wave the flag
to mean "we are burning", he is written as a serdengeçti soldier, as a
true lover:
They show you a flag, don't think who your lovers are
Rezmîveş was written, it passed through the sea, the meaning of sipâh
The same situation is referred to in a couplet of Gelibolulu Mustafa
Âlî:
The evil of Gice Ahum showed a procession of honey
Many flags
unfurled, the trees are full of citrus trees
In the section about
the Galata Tower in Cemal Süreya's poem "The Twisted Golden State of the
Sun", the longing for the Byzantine and Roman periods is expressed by
using irony through allusion:
And the Galata Tower (his hat was blown
off in 1514 during the time of the Byzantines, he was circumcised by the
Turks in 1967), gathered its buildings around it, looking for ways to
comfortably face an approaching storm, holding talks: like the Pharaoh,
at the head of his people and at the forefront, preparing to knock on
the door of hell. ..
The tower is also mentioned in Süreya's poem
titled "Rococo". In Sezai Karakoç's poem "Ode to Maiden's Tower II";
Stating that the Maiden's Tower, which he described as a Muslim
building, sent light to the Galata Tower, which he described as a
Christian building, erasing the Genoese and Byzantine darkness on it, he
commented that the first tower symbolizes the Eastern civilization and
the second symbolizes the Western civilization, adding that the mystery
and magic of the East corresponds to the West. It is explained that it
will also affect:
Maiden's Tower sends light to Galata Tower
It
removes the Genoese darkness
Byzantine darkness every morning
With
the Muslim lullaby he hears in the water every evening
He digs his
magic speech into the depths of our souls
Spreads Samarkand scented
walnut leaf evening into the air
It is a green prayer to the greatest
light
Ümit Yaşar Oğuzcan wrote the poem "Galata Tower" after his
15-year-old son Vedat committed suicide by jumping from the tower on
June 6, 1973. In his book titled Istanbul (Constantinopoli), published
in 1877, Edmondo De Amicis describes Galata as "an opened fan" and the
tower located on the hill as "the handle of this fan".
Ezio
Auditore da Firenze, the main character of the 2011 video game
Assassin's Creed: Revelations, partly set in 16th century
Constantinople, climbs the Galata Tower from the outside and enters the
tower in one part of the game. Galata Tower is among the Colossal
Buildings in the 2012 browser game Forge of Empires. The 1997 video game
Byzantine: Labyrinth of Secrets (Byzantine: The Betrayal) has parts set
in the Galata Tower. There is a depiction of the tower on the Galata map
of the 2017 video game Sabotage.
The Galata Tower is depicted in
two paintings by Ivan Ayvazovsky dated 1845 and 1846, which contain
different views of the city. While Galata and the tower are depicted in
Garabet Yazıcıyan's painting dated 1891, a fire near the tower is
depicted in his painting dated 1903. İbrahim Safi also has two paintings
depicting the tower. In addition, various descriptions of the tower are
included in the books in which many authors describe their trips to the
city.
Depictions of the tower appear in the logos of Beyoğlu
Municipality and Istanbul Galata University. Among the models in
Miniatürk in the district, since the opening of the park in May 2003,
there is also a model of the Galata Tower. This model was renovated in
March 2016. A model of the tower is also exhibited in Minimundus in
Klagenfurt, Austria. The model of the tower is among the models
exhibited in the Kepez Open Air Museum, which was opened in Konyaaltı,
Antalya in May 2004 and moved to Kepez in 2018.
Among the sand
sculptures exhibited at the International Sand Sculptures Festival held
at the CarrefourSA branch in Kozyatağı in July-September 2007, a
sculpture with the theme of Galata Tower and Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi was
also included. In December 2010, the tower was among the buildings in
Istanbul depicted in the ceramic panel called Istanbul Panel, created on
Cumhuriyet Street stretching from Beşiktaş to Ortaköy. Its model was
among the works included in the exhibition called Worldminia, which was
held several times, the first of which was at ANKAmall in
January-February 2014. In 1632, Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi's soaring from the
top of the Galata Tower to Doğancılar, Üsküdar, wearing the eagle wings
made of wood on his back, influenced various cultural works and works.
The water tower, located in the town of Niederlehme in the German
state of Brandenburg and completed in 1902, was designed by taking the
Galata Tower as a model.
All printed in Turkey; 17 October 1950
in memory of the International Civil Aviation Organization Congress held
in the city, 6 January 1971 in memory of the 60th anniversary of the
establishment of the Turkish Air Force, 1 September 1995 in memory of
the 1996 World Philatelic Exhibition held in the city, 3 July 2005 in
memory of the 22nd World Architecture Congress held in the city,
Balkanfila XIV' Photographs or depictions of the Galata Tower were
included in the postage stamps dated 28 October 2007 and 7 January 2010,
in memory of Istanbul becoming the 2010 European Capital of Culture. A
depiction of the tower appeared on the back of the silver coin number 2
dated 1999 and the gold coin number 8 dated 2002 of the commemorative
coin series called Euro Series, which were minted by the country's
national mint.