“The Paşa’s Garden”
Old name: İncirliköy
The Bosphorus suburb of Paşabahçe on the Asian side of İstanbul is best known for the glass once produced in a factory here. The glass lives on but the factory has moved elsewhere, leaving little to lure a foreign visitor here since the small Greek Orthodox church of Sts Constantine and Helena just off the main square is usually kept locked. It was built in 1834 after the minority communities were given permission to erect new places of worship.
An old wooden mosque dating back to 1750 was replaced in 1971 with the present over-large – and some would say very ugly – concrete version that dominates the main square.
If you walk uphill through the huge Paşabahçe Cemetery you will see the graves of people who came from all over the country to work in the factories, their home-towns poignantly recorded. Here, too, you will find some crumbling wooden houses where the well-to-do would have lived with a fine view of the Bosphorus spread out beneath them.
Transport info
A Şehir Hatları coastal-hop ferry service from Üsküdar links Paşabahçe with Beylerbeyi, Çengelköy, Anadolu Hisarı, Kanlıca, Çubuklu, Beykoz and Anadolu Kavağı. Infrequent ferries also link Paşabahçe with İstinye on the European shore. Otherwise the easiest way to get here is by bus from Üsküdar. Factor in plenty of time for traffic bottlenecks along the way.
Nearby areas
