An extensive culture and heritage restoration campaign is revealing previously overlooked layers of the world’s most visited city.
For decades, the dome-topped turret of the Bulgur Palas in Istanbul’s central Fatih district could only be glimpsed peeking out over the top of the high walls that surround this abandoned century-old mansion. Now the palace offers sweeping, panoramic views of the Marmara Sea, the city’s minaret-studded historical peninsula and its skyscraper-studded new business district in the distance.
Restored and reopened in February 2024 as a cultural centre, complete with a 150-seat library, exhibition space, garden cafe and observation terrace, this former residence and Ottoman Bank archive is one of dozens of previously inaccessible sites across Istanbul – ranging from Byzantine-era fortifications to late-Ottoman-period factories – that have been opening to the public over the past five years. The result is a wealth of newly restored attractions that reveal little-known historical and cultural layers in the world’s most-visited city.
“Istanbul cannot fit into a single photograph; wherever you go in the city, you can find these little gems,” says Mahir Polat, who has spearheaded this city-wide restoration drive since 2019 as deputy secretary-general of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB).
According to Polat, the restoration projects aim to create new public spaces in the dense metropolis and breathe new life into neglected historical sites that were at risk of earthquakes and further urban development. But they may also point towards a more sustainable tourism strategy for a city straining under the weight of 20.2 million international visitors in 2023 – a 26% leap compared to 2022. Lines often stretch down the block to get into top sights such as Topkapı Palace, home to the Ottoman sultans; the Byzantine-church-turned-mosque Hagia Sophia; or the ancient underground Basilica Cistern.
“Tourists always tend to go to the same places, which can create problems anywhere in the world,” says tour guide Sinan Sökmen, the founder of Istanbul Tour Studio. “These additional landmarks have the potential to spread tourism around.”
As an example, Sökmen points to the Gülhane Park Cistern, a 1,500-year-old reservoir that was restored by the municipality and reopened to the public in early 2023.
Just a 10-minute walk from its larger, more popular cousin, Gülhane is only one piece of a city-wide cistern system once comprising more than 200 underground and open-air reservoirs that provided water to the city’s residents. It sits inside a leafy park that was part of the private grounds of Topkapı Palace and is also home to the Column of the Goths, perhaps the oldest extant Roman monument in the city, and the Alay Köşkü, a gem of a 16th-Century pavilion where the Ottoman sultan would view his parading troops.
This kind of multi-layered history is everywhere in Istanbul, which was founded in the 7th Century BCE and catapulted to power to become the seat of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Today, it remains the only place in history to have been the capital of consecutive Christian and Islamic empires, and the only city in the world spanning two continents: Europe and Asia.
