Bakirköy was founded in the second century by Emperor Septimius Severus as a Roman city called Septimum. Today it lies in European Istanbul, sandwiched
between the D100 highway and the Sea of Marmara. Though historically a single neighborhood, Bakirköy - in present day - has swelled into a district encompassing several other neighborhoods. Though contested by some, early historians believed Bakirköy may have originally began as the Byzantine village of Hebdomon (Ἕβδομον), meaning "The Seventh”. Hebdomon was initially a fishing village that grew into a resort village for Byzantine nobles, even witnessing the crowing of several Byzantine emperors. Toward the end of the Byzantine Period it was called Makri or Makro Hori, meaning “Long Village.” This inspired its new name, Makriköy, after the Ottoman conquest. Beginning in 1925, Makriköy was renamed to Bakirköy.
During the Byzantine Period Bakirköy was home to many iconic landmarks. These include the summer palace of Justinian, the memorial of Theodosius, and the sarcophagus of Emperor Basileus Bulgarocton in YeniMahalle, which was unknowingly converted into a public fountain. Another such landmark, the Elephant’s Roof Cistern, was later excavated from under a children's hospital in the nineteenth century by Makridi Bey, an ethnically Greek Turkish archaeologist who oversaw the first major excavations of Bakirköy.
During the Ottoman period, Bakirköy - then Makriköy - was an industrial powerhouse for the city and empire. One such example was the Imperial Gunpowder Factory (Baruthane-i Amire) established in the seventeenth century but rebuilt in 1785 after a fire destroyed the original building. It was expanded into a rifle and bullet factory in the early nineteenth century. It became part of a massive industrial complex centered in Zeytinburnu and Bakirköy, boasting a boatyard for steamships and produced the Work of Iron (Eser-i Hadid), the empire’s first armored steamship.
The gunpowder factory was left in disrepair after the invasion of the Russian Army in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. Included in the industrial complex was the Cloth Factory which was a privately owned calico plant. The factory employed half Muslim and half non-Muslim workers. A new Bakirköy Cloth Factory operated from 1920 to 1950 and employed many recent immigrants including those born in Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, and Russia. As a state-owned enterprise, it operated under both the Ottoman Empire and the transition into the Turkish Republic.
Beyond the factories, Bakirköy was home to the Istanbul Atatürk Airport which began operation as an Ottoman airfield in 1911. Another modern establishment is the Bakırköy Psychiatric Hospital, opening its doors on October 14th, 1924 by Dr. Mazhar Osman. Its notable patients include actress Afife Jale, American writer Billy Hayes, and serial killer and rapist Ayhan Kartal. In the late nineteenth century, with the construction of a railroad through Istanbul the neighborhood became a popular residential area and rapid urbanization of the 1950s through 80s saw the historic neighborhood grow into the larger district it is today. It is still considered a desirable residential spot for Istanbul’s middle class.
The neighborhood is home to two Orthodox Greek Churches, the Hagios Georgios and Aya Analipsis Churches, which were the two main Greek Orthodox churches built in Bakirköy in the nineteenth century, the latter of which is on the grounds of a prominent Greek cemetery. Catholic Greeks also maintained a presence in Bakirköy, evident in the Saint Rosaire Catholic School, a primary school founded by the Catholic Greeks of
Bakirköy at the beginning of the twentieth century, located next to the Notre Dame de Rosaire Latin Church. Besides the Greeks, other ethnic and religious minorities lived in Bakirköy. Built in 1831 due to the request of Armenian workers in the Zeytinburnu Iron Factory, stands the Dzinunt Surp Asdvadzadzni Armenian Orthodox Church in the Baruthane district of Bakırköy. The Bakırköy Synagogue has been active since the late nineteenth century though in the current day, due to decreased activity, it is mostly only open for the Sabbath.
References
Akgöz, Görkem. 2012. “Many Voices of a Turkish State Factory Working At the Bakırköy
Cloth Factory, 1932-50.” Universiteit van Amsterdam Digital Academic Repository.
Aksoy1, Yildiz. 2022. “The Values of Republic Period Buildings - Istanbul Bakırköy Houses."
Architecture and Exploration, no. Contemporary Issues in Architecture and Urban
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“Bakırköy.” n.d. Wikipedia. Accessed 2023.
“Bakirkoy a unique history and modernity in Istanbul.” 2022. Ramzy Real Estate. https://ramzyrealestate.com/en/post/bakirkoy-a-unique-history-and-modernity-in- istanbul
“Bakırköy Psychiatric Hospital.” n.d. Wikipedia. Accessed 2023.
Kus, Dilara, and Matteo U. Poli. 2022. “Regeneration by the Interpretation of Abandoned
Urban Structures Memory : Baruthane, Bakirkoy.” ARC I - School of Architecture Urban
Planning Construction Engineering.
Yerasimos, Stefanos. 2005. Constantinople: Istanbul's Historical Heritage.: Könemann.
Tuna, Turgay. Hebdomon’dan Bakırköy’e = From Hebdomon to Bakırköy. Bakırköy:
Belediye, 2000.
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