Yeşilköy San Stefano | |
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 Aerial view of the Yeşilköy (San Stefano) seafront | |
  Yeşilköy Location in Turkey Show map of Turkey Yeşilköy Yeşilköy (Istanbul) Show map of Istanbul | |
| Coordinates:40°57′34″N28°49′31″E / 40.95944°N 28.82528°E /40.95944; 28.82528 | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Istanbul |
| District | Bakırköy |
| Population (2022) | 25,039 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (TRT) |
Yeşilköy (Turkish pronunciation:[jeˈʃilcœj]; meaning "Green Village"; prior to 1926,San Stefano orSanto StefanoGreek:Άγιος Στέφανος,romanized: Ágios Stéfanos,Turkish:Ayastefanos) is anaffluentneighbourhood (Turkish:mahalle) in the municipality and district ofBakırköy,Istanbul Province,Turkey.[1] Its population is 25,039 (2022).[2] on theMarmara Sea about 11 kilometres (7 mi) west of Istanbul's historic city centre. Prior to the rapid increase of Istanbul's population in the 1970s, Yeşilköy was a secluded village and sea resort.
Themahalle is located along the Marmara Sea about 11 kilometres west of Istanbul'shistorical center. It is bordered by the districts ofYeşilyurt to the east, Ataköy to the northeast,Florya to the west, and the district of Küçükçekmece to the north. The western part of the district is calledÇiroz.
The original name,San Stefano, in use until 1926, derives from a legend: in the early 13th century, the ship carryingSaint Stephen's relics to Rome fromConstantinople, sacked by the crusaders of theFourth Crusade, was forced to stop here because of a storm. The relics were taken to a church until the sea calmed, and this gave the name to the church and to the place.[3] In 1926, the village was named Yeşilköy which means "Green Village" in Turkish. It is believed that the writerHalit Ziya Uşakligil who lived there at the time gave this new name to the village.[3]
In 1203, the beach of Agios Stefanos had been the site of disembarkation of the Latin army of the Fourth Crusade, which wouldconquer Constantinople the following year.
In the 19th century, the whole village was owned by the prominent ArmenianDadian family.[3]
During theCrimean War, French forces were stationed here and built one of the three historic lighthouses ofIstanbul still in use.[3] San Stefano was where in 1878 the Russian forces halted their advance towards Constantinople at the end of theRusso-Turkish War and was the location where theTreaty of San Stefano was signed between theRussian andTurkish Empires.[3] In 1909, the decision to send SultanAbdülhamid II into exile toThessaloniki was taken by the members of theCommittee of Union and Progress at the yacht club of San Stefano.[3]
On 10 July 1894, San Stefano – as with the whole Marmara region of Constantinople – was hit by astrong earthquake, followed by atsunami.[4] The sea receded 100 metres from the shore and the followingtsunami created giant waves which devastated the coast.[4] The boathouse, the docks and large wooden structures were damaged, many houses were destroyed or damaged and also the train track was severely damaged by the quake.[4]
San Stefano was where the first aviation facilities were built in the Ottoman Empire in 1912 and an aviation school was set up and later developed by German officers to train pilots for theOttoman Aviation Squadrons.
In 1912, during theBalkan Wars, thousands of soldiers suffering fromcholera were brought here, and about 3,000 of them died and were buried near the train station.[3]
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Shortly after the Ottomans' entry into theFirst World War as Germany's ally, on 14 November 1914, amonument erected here in 1898 to commemorate the Russian soldiers who died in 1878, was blown up by theOttoman military as a propaganda event;[5] the demolition is thought to have beenfilmed by the first Turkish filmmakerFuat Uzkınay and thus is officially deemed to be the birth ofTurkish cinema.[6] During thebombings of Istanbul, the area was affected several times by the British bombs.[7][8]
Beginning in the late 1800s, San Stefano was a favourite coastal resort and hunting place for Constantinople's upper classes. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the village had a predominantly Christian population. It had a mixed population, composed ofTurks,Greeks (now almost completely gone),Armenians andLevantines (Italian andFrench people, now mostly gone).[3] The legacy of its once cosmopolitan character is present: an Italian mission, an Italian Catholic church and cemetery, an Armenian Apostolic Church and a few Greek churches still exist in the area, with the Armenians and Italians of the district still frequenting their churches.[3] TheKurds and theAssyrians, faithful of theSyriac Orthodox Church, who have emigrated to Istanbul since the second half of the 20th century from eastern and southeastern Turkey, are relatively more recent newcomers. In 2015, the Syriac Orthodox community got permission to build a Syriac Orthodox Church in this part of the city, for their 15,000 members in Istanbul, where not only the large majority of Turkey's Assyrians live, but also the majority of Istanbul's Assyrians.[9] On 3 August 2019, in the presence of the Patriarch of the Syriac Church, ofPatriarch Bartholomew and of Istanbul MayorEkrem İmamoğlu, PresidentErdoğan laid in Yeşilköy the first stone of theMor Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church, the first church erected in Turkey since the foundation of the republic.[10] The area chosen for the construction is a part of the ground of the ancient Levantine cemetery.[10] The church was finished in 2023[11] and was inaugurated by Erdoğan on 8 October 2023.[12]
In the Greek Orthodox Church of Aghios Stephanos on 26 December each year (Saint's Day), the ceremony namedThysias (Ancient Greek:Θυσίας) is celebrated.[13] Several previously bought sheep are sacrificed in the church garden and the meat is distributed to the poor and needy.[13] The ceremony is attended by Greeks from Yeşilköy (including several emigrants) and other districts of Istanbul.[13] The ceremony commemorates the forced landing of the ship carrying the Saint's bones at the village. The crew, bound for Rome and forced to land due to a storm, kept the relics for 10-12 days under a tent erected at the future church, and during this time the villagers fed the sailors by slaughtering sheep from their flocks.[13]
Yeşilköy retains some remarkable examples ofArt Nouveau wooden houses, built in the late 19th and early 20th century.[3] Among them:
The house, which is one of the oldest residences in Yeşilköy, is now a boutique hotel serving mainly foreign tourists.[14] The objects decorating the lobby do not come from the Crespins, but from the collection of the current owners.[14] Edouard Crespin's father, one of Yeşilköy's best-known personalities, came to Bursa as Consul representing the King of France during the reign ofMahmud II.[14] When he retired, he stayed in Bursa and started the silk trade.[14] His son Edouard Crespin settled in Yeşilköy and built the house, located at Istanbul Caddesi 29.[14]
Among the historical buildings in Yeşilköy are three townhouses built in 1900 on Istasyon Caddesi by Guglielmo Semprini, a famous Levantine architect of Italian origin, who designed many works in Istanbul, and is best known for theGrand Hotel de Londres inTepebaşı [tr],Taksim.[14]
The district contains a mosque and four notable churches (Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Roman Catholic and Syriac). The first three churches are dedicated to St Stephen,[3] the last to St Ephrem. Moreover, the quarter hosts also one of the fewAyazma still in use in Istanbul.
The mosque, the first built in the locality, is theMecidiye cami (dedicated to theOrder of the Medjidie, an Ottoman order) and was built to the design of the Ottoman architectMimar Kemaleddin in the years between the end of the reign ofMehmed V and the beginning of the Republic.[13]
The church, possibly built where important personalities in Yeşilköy's history have been buried, is located on Mirasyedi Sokak.[15] The current structure, which bears parts of the first church built in the Byzantine period on its façade, was built in 1845.[15] Its exterior dimensions are 22.31 x 13.75 metres, while its height is about 10.5 metres.[15] The church has a basilica plan with three naves.[15] The bell tower was built later.[15] The small icons in the upper part of theiconostasis contain episodes from the life of Jesus Christ, while the larger ones in the lower part contain, from left to right, depictions of St. Stephen, Mary and the Infant Jesus, Jesus Christ andJohn the Baptist.[15]
The church, located on Inci Ciceǧi Sokak, was built in 1844 under the leadership of Bogos Bey, a member of theDadyan family, and still serves Yeşilköy's large Armenian community today.[16] The gate to the complex, which is separated from the street by a high wall, is noteworthy.[16] In the 1870s, a school, still active today, was built next to the church.[16]
The church, the construction of which was started in 1865 according to the design of architect Pietro Vitalis, and finished in 1886, is located on Cumbuṣ Sokak.[17] The first building collapsed in theearthquake of 1894, and was replaced by a new temple.[17] The wooden ceiling was made with Austrian craftsmen and materials.[17] On the façade there are three noteworthy statues from France.[17] Also worth seeing is the painting on the altar depicting the stoning of St. Stephen.[17] During the Marmara earthquake of 1894, the living quarters at the back of the church were damaged and rebuilt.[17] The lower floor of the building in which the restaurant is located, directly opposite the church, was used by the financial affairs office of the Russian army during the 1877 war.[17]
In Yeşilköy on 3 August 2019, in the presence of the Patriarch of the Syriac Church, Patriarch Bartholomew and Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu, President Erdoğan laid the foundation stone of the first Syriac church to be erected in Turkey since the founding of the republic.[10] The area chosen for the construction is a part of the land of the ancient Levantine cemetery.[10] The temple was completed in 2023.[18]
In the vicinity of the Greek church, there is also anaghiasma, i.e. a Greek Orthodox sacred spring, dating back to the Byzantine period and dedicated toAghia Fotini, located in the basement of a house and freely accessible from the street,[19] which is a covered pedestrian pathway hosting several restaurants.
Yeşilköy has a station for theMarmaraycommuter railway betweenGebze andHalkalı. The first station, servicing thesuburban railway line (Banliyö Treni) toSirkeci, was built in 1871, and contributed to the neighbourhood's boom as a popular resort. The quarter is connected to the center of the city and to the nearby neighborhoods by bus. TheDolmuş lines which connected Yeşilköy with the center andBakirköy have been discontinued after the entry into service of Marmaray.
Istanbul Atatürk International Airport, formerly known as the Yeşilköy Airport, is located in this district.
The headquarters ofTurkish Airlines are on the property of the airport.[20]MyCargo Airlines (formerly ACT Airlines) has its head office in Level 4, Building A3 of the Istanbul World Trade Center (İstanbul Dünya Ticaret Merkezi) in Yeşilköy.[21]Borajet also had its head office in Yeşilköy.[22] WhenBestair existed, its head office was in Yeşilköy.[23]
Yeşilköy has a Marina - theYeşilköy Burnu Marina -[24] and sandy beaches.[3]
On the waterfront, a small museum dedicated to the village and its minorities has been opened in 2012.
San Stefano Peak onRugged Island in theSouth Shetland Islands,Antarctica is named after the settlement, in connection with theTreaty of San Stefano.
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Media related toYeşilköy at Wikimedia Commons
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