In the late 1800s, Pera (Beyoğlu)
was the European district of Istanbul,
with European-style buildings of stone and
plaster rather than the wooden structures
of Old Istanbul (Sultanahmet).
This is a detail from the Rumeli
Han, one of my favorite
old shopping, office and residential building
on Beyoğlu's İstiklal
Caddesi (once
the elegant Grande
Rue de Péra). The Ottoman Turkish inscription
(in Arabic script) gives the building's date
of construction and its name, which is also
given in
Greek and
French on either
side of this detail.
Looking at modern buildings, which tend to be gigantic blocks, I wonder...when
we're strolling down a city street, why
can't we have interesting things like this to look at on buildings
anymore?
