“Gate of Torment”
Considering all the fuss that was made about the Metro bridge across the Golden Horn, it’s extraordinary to think that in the 1930s it was possible to build the Atatürk Bridge across the Golden Horn right beside the Sinan-designed Azapkapı Cami, a work of Sinan designed for the grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed Paşa, in 1577. Only huge protests prevented the authorities from ripping the mosque down to make way for it.
The Sinan mosque aside, Azapkapı is not a part of town likely to attract many visitors who will have grown tired of counting the myriad hardware shops running all the way along Tersane Caddesi from Karaköy Meydanı long before they get to the bridge. If you do visit, however, you will find one or two other monuments of passing interest to distract you.
Around Azapkapı
Designed by Sinan for the grand vizier Sokollu Mehmed Paşa in 1577, the Azapkapı Cami deserves to get more attention than its unappealing location encourages. Like the Rüstem Paşa Cami in Tahtakale the Azapkapı Cami was built on a platform of shops, an arasta whose rents would support the maintenance of the mosque. Today none of them is in use. The mosque also featured an unusual minaret attached to the mosque by what looks otherwise like a buttressing arch.
The mosque was once part of a complex most of which has long since vanished. On the far side of the road the inconsequential Yeşildirek Hamamı was founded as part of the complex although it has been completely rebuilt over the centuries.
Right beside the mosque is the Saliha Valide Hatun Çeşmesi, one of İstanbul’s most splendid fountains, built in 1733 for the mother of Sultan Mahmud I.
A wretched stretch of wall running down to the water is one of the last remaining pieces of the wall that once completely enclosed the Genoese enclave of Galata. If you cross over the busy main road and strike inland you will come to another stretch which still retains the heraldic carvings over the gateway that were such a feature of Genoese architecture. Restoration work is now scheduled for these remnants,
Transport info
It’s an easy walk from Karaköy to Azapkapı although the traffic can be offputting; many buses plough up and down Tersane Caddesi if you’d rather avoid the diesel fumes. The Haliç Metro stop is right on the Haliç bridge, just a short walk away from the mosque.
Nearby areas
Read more abut the Genoese in İstanbul: http://www.turkeyfromtheinside.com/blogbloggingaboutturkey/entry/16-seeking-the-genoese-in-istanbul.html
