Beyoğlu

Sister cities

• Seongbuk District
• Pécs
• Berlin
• Mannheim
• Genoa
• Dortmund
• Skopje
• Metropolitan City of Genoa
• Sector 1
• Chornomorsk
• Bezirk Mitte

History

The area now known as Beyoğlu has been inhabited since Byzas founded the City of Byzantium in the 7th century BC, and predates the founding of Constantinople. During the Byzantine era, Greek speaking inhabitants named the hillside covered with orchards Sykai (The Fig Orchard), or Peran en Sykais (The Fig Field on the Other Side), referring to the "other side" of the Golden Horn. As the Byzantine Empire grew, so did Constantinople and its environs. The northern side of the Golden Horn became built up as a suburb of Byzantium as early as the 5th century. In this period the area began to be called Galata, and Emperor Theodosius II (reigned 402–450) built a fortress. The Greeks believe that the name comes either from galatas (meaning "milkman"), as the area was used by shepherds in the early medieval period, or from the word Galatai (meaning "Gauls"), as the Celtic tribe of Gauls were thought to have camped here during the Hellenistic period before settling into Galatia in central Anatolia, becoming known as the Galatians. The inhabitants of Galatia are famous for the Epistle to the Galatians and the Dying Galatian statue. The name may have also derived from the Italian word Calata, meaning "downward slope", as Galata, formerly a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453, stands on a hilltop that goes downwards to the sea. The area came to be the base of European merchants, particularly from Genoa and Venice, in what was then known as Pera. Following the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and during the Latin Empire of Constantinople (1204–1261), the Venetians became more prominent in Pera. The Dominican Church of St. Paul (1233), today known as the Arap Camii, is from this period. In 1273 the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos granted Pera to the Republic of…

Most-observed species

• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,761
• Yellow-legged Gull

  Larus michahellis J.F.Naumann, 1840 · Aves
  10,331
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,163
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  6,376
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  6,359
• Western Jackdaw

  Coloeus monedula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,805
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,744
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  5,058

Most recent

• M 5 — 2025-10-02
  22 km S of Marmara Ereğlisi, Turkey
• M 3.8 — 2025-07-05
  30 km SSW of Kumburgaz, Turkey
• M 4.2 — 2025-07-02
  4 km NE of Gemlik, Turkey
• M 4 — 2025-07-01
  3 km S of Umurbey, Turkey
• M 3.7 — 2025-05-03
  27 km SE of Marmara Ereğlisi, Turkey
• M 4.3 — 2025-04-25
  19 km SSW of Kumburgaz, Turkey