“Middle Village”
Market day: Sunday
One of İstanbul’s liveliest and trendiest Bosphorus suburbs, Ortaköy boasts a rather odd name which means “Middle Village” in Turkish although these days you’d be hard pressed to work out what it is meant to be in the middle of.
Ortaköy is best known for its colourful Sunday arts and crafts market and for the string of high-society nightclubs – Reina, Sortie, Anjelique, Blackk, etc – that stretch from here to Kuruçeşme and account for most of the weekend traffic congestion. In the past though this was a very multicultural area so it’s one of the parts of Turkey where you can find mosques, churches and even an old synagogue very close together.
For visitors the main centre of attraction is the waterfront square with the lovely Ortaköy Cami standing on Defterdarburnu, the small promontory that juts out into the water more or less under the Bosphorus Bridge/15 July Şehitleri Köprüsü.
The labyrinth of narrow streets behind the square is full of shops and restaurants aimed at the tourist trade. To find where the Ortaköylüs shop you need to head inland along Muallim Hacı Caddesi.
In summer many night-time cruises depart from the pier at Ortaköy.
Around Ortaköy
The most conspicuous historic monument in Ortaköy is the delightful Ortaköy (Büyük Mecidiye) Cami built in 1855 by Nikoğayos Balyan for Sultan Abdülmecid. With its hugee arched windows that let silvery Bosphorus light flood the interior, it closely resembles the Dolmabahçe Cami which was being built at the exact same time by his father, Garabet. The mosque was designed with a two-storey “box” for the sultan at the back that allowed him to step straight from his caique and into the mosque. Some of the calligraphy inside the mosque was done by Sultan Abdülmecid.
The mosque stands on the site of an earlier mosque that would have been there in 1723 when Sultan Ahmed III’s grand vizier, Damad İbrahim Paşa, commissioned an elegant free-standing fountain that can still be seen amid the shops and restaurants.
Given the enormous role the Balyan family played in the development of this part of the Bosphorus shore it won’t come as much of a surprise to find that The Stay Hotel has been created out of what was once the home of Nikoğayos’ brother, Simon.
As for the dubious “attraction” of the Bosphorus Bridge which passes over Ortaköy and Beylerbeyi, this was erected in 1973 when as little regard appears to have been paid to the environmental costs as was paid to the damage done by the building of the Third Bridge in 2016.
If you head back to the coast road you will see, on the sea side of the road, the large Greek Orthodox Church of Hagios Fokas that was built in 1856 and the much smaller Etz Ahayim (Tree of Life) synagogue built in 1813 and restored in 1941. Neither is likely to be open to casual visitors.
Stranded on a island just where the worst traffic bottlenecks tend to occur is an unusual 16th-century hamam with four domed chambers believed to have been designed by Sinan for Hüsrev Kethuda, a steward to the Grand Vizier, Sokullu Mehmed Paşa, in the 1570s. It is currently occupied by a design studio.
As you head out of Ortaköy towards Kuruçeşme you will see a string of old yalıs (waterside mansions). The first, the Esma Sultan Yalı beside the Ortaköy Cami, is now just the shell of a stone building left after a fire in 1975. Originally built in the early 19th century for Sultan Mahmud II’s sister, Esma Sultan, its history reflects the slow fall from grace of such mansions. First it became a school. Then it became a tobacco warehouse. Then it became a coal depot. The tide finally turned in the 1990s when The Marmara group bought it to serve as an entertainments venue despite its ruinous condition.
The adjoining Fehime Sultan and Hatice Sultan Yalıs reemerged from behind restoration hoardings in 2023. The Fehime Sultan Yalı was originally built in 1883 for Gazi Osman Paşa who held out against the Russians for five months at Plevne in 1877 before finally capitulating. When his son married Abdülhamid II’s daughter, Naime Sultan, it was renamed the Naime Sultan Yalı. Later it was given to Murad V’s daughter, Fehime, changing name once again. After serving time as a school, it burned down in 2002 but has been effectively rebuilt now. The adjacent yalı belonged to Fehime’s sister, Hatice Sultan, and stands on the site of an earlier Hatice Sultan Palace that appears in a spectacular drawing by the Dutch architect, Antoine-Ignace Melling. Also beautifully restored, it stands awaiting the next phase of its life.
The lives of the occupants of the two yalıs were more than usually intertwined. After being forced to marry a much older man, Hatice Sultan embarked on an affair with her cousin Naime’s husband, Kemaleddin Paşa, who was forced to divorce Naime and leave the country. When Sultan Abdülhamid II was deposed, Kemaleddin returned and proposed to Hatice but by then she had transferred her affections to another man. Her grandson, Kenize Murad, described the goings-on in a book called Saraydan Sürgune (From the Palace to Exile).
Sleeping
Radisson Blu Bosphorus Hotel. Tel: 0212-310 1500
The Stay Hotel Bosphorus Dating from the mid-19th century, this 26-room hotel was once the home of Simon Kalfa, a member of the famous family of architects, the Balyans. During the early years of the Republic, it operated as the ‘Jardin Gazinosu’ where Atatürk’s favourite singer, Safiye Ayla, would give unforgettable performances. Today the rooms are small but stylish, and the terrace offers stunning Bosphorus views. 
Salhane Sokak No. 1/A, Tel: 0212-970 7830
Transport info
Most of the buses heading along the Bosphorus from Kabataş and Beşiktaş pass through Ortaköy, a notorious travel bottleneck, especially at weekends and during the rush hours.
Alternatively, you can take a Şehir Hatları ferry from Eminönü, Beşiktaş, Üsküdar or Kadıköy to Ortaköy. There are also private ferries from Galataport. Their fares are not covered by İstanbul transport cards; you get a discount for paying with a Mastercard.
Nearby areas
