You are aware of it and we, too, there is something going on around Balat & Fener these days.. You know, when Karaköy, which our mothers used to say, don’t go to such places, my child, turns into one of the places we visit the most, we are talking about something with that taste.. You go to Instagram in the morning, someone is having breakfast in Balat, you open the newspaper, they have allocated a few pages to the “Best Cafes in Balat” list, you look at the social media phenomena, they are all running around in Balat.. No, Balat, what are you up to?

Let us explain to you what’s going on right away; Balat & Fener region, whose name is always mentioned together, is undergoing a strange transformation.. As if everything has already prepared the environment to make Balat lovable.. Thanks to the Jews and Greeks who settled here in time, you can’t get enough of looking at the houses anyway.. Churches, synagogues, mosques all in one, there is an environment that will make people walk around saying “we are all brothers”.. An incredibly beautiful building such as the Fener Greek High School rises above you. If you are a photographer and want to take a picture of a child playing on the street or an old uncle with a characteristic face walking among colorful houses, you are in the right place, you have lived.. If you say the sea is right next to it, do you look at the side streets like this, every road is the biggest source of pride of the people of Istanbul, which drives the people of Ankara into the sea, how can it not be beautiful? We all felt that Fener and Balat would one day come to this point, but we didn’t seem to mention it…. wave coffee shops, new restaurants, shops are starting to be added. Now meeting with your friend in Balat has started to become normal.. You wouldn’t be surprised if Saffet Emre Tonguç and his tour team passed by you while you were getting lost in the streets of Fener Balat.. Something new and beautiful is happening and I think we are all very ready for it, soon we will love and embrace both Feneri and Balat very much!

If that’s the case, let’s give you some Balat & Fener Tours! Let’s talk about our details, places to visit in Fener and Balat, the best places in Fener and Balat, and places to explore. If we have the opportunity to look at this article 15 years later, we will probably feel like a historical monument and say, “Look, Balat was just developing back then”, at least let’s enjoy witnessing the history in a way.

*From the beginning note: If you intend to go on a more detailed Istanbul tour or if your tourist friend has come to Istanbul and you do not know how to show him/herself, if you are looking for a personalized tour guide for Istanbul, let us recommend https://istanbulturistrehberi.net to you.. We would like to add that we know and absolutely trust dear Serhat personally so that you do not think this is an advertisement.. Keep in mind that he is an insatiable, extremely successful person in his field, “if you know him, you would love it”.

Let the Balat & Fener Tour Start!

Here we are, we are proud of being a tourist in our own city.. So where to start to visit Balat? It really depends on what kind of trip you’re planning.. If you intend to take a historical tour, the classic starting point is Cibali Gate. There are many rumors about why the door located right next to the old Tobacco Factory (current Kadir Has University) is named Cibali.. However, we don’t have the right information because most of them consist of transformation stories that were put forward when we couldn’t find the source of the classical name, such as “the name was unknown, then it turned into Cibali because of the time cibulu cibele hebele höbölö”.. After seeing the Cibali Gate, if you start walking towards Eyüp, leaving Kadir Has University behind you, you will actually start your exploration of Balat from a very good point.. After this point, your travel plan is entirely up to you, because as we mentioned above, there are many churches, mosques and historical buildings in the region.. We will talk about the most touristic / most popular ones, which we have the opportunity to see below.. We think that for a more comprehensive and detailed trip, we definitely need to spend more serious time around Fener & Balat and do a much more comprehensive research, so that is the work of another article.

What Did Uncle Fikret Teach Us?

We decided to get lost among the houses for a bit before heading to Fener Greek High School, which we set our minds on because we got the disease, they will die if they don’t see it closely.. Meanwhile, we were wandering around one of the most beautiful streets of the region, one of the most beautiful streets of the region, Merdivenli Yokuşu, when we came across Uncle Fikret by chance.. Uncle Fikret is probably the most sympathetic and friendly person in Balat.. There cannot be a person who sees and does not love, knows and does not want to see again.. When he saw that we were wandering around and taking pictures, he came to us and we started chatting.. He thought we were architecture students, instead of using a sentence that could drag us into a big mess like saying we are a blogger, we said we are writing somewhere, he liked it.. Come on, let me tell you a little about these places then, he said.. We started to listen to the story of Merdivenli Yokuşu.

Uncle Fikret was born and raised in Balat, so he knows everything from everywhere, he is a true Balat Master.. As we started our conversation, he tells us, “They used to be afraid to come here, now there are lots of people who come and go, but everyone shakes them off a lot,” and he talks about the fact that lawyers, teachers, “enlightened people” live there, as if to emphasize that Balat is not a troubled area in terms of security.. She will have liked it because we were interested. Yes, it is a pity that it is no longer the case, but still, as we observe, the neighborhood culture continues at full speed in Balat, there is an incredibly warm atmosphere indeed.. At that time, as if confirming our thoughts, Uncle Fikret greets a few people passing by and says, “Let me show you the inside of the house, it is very old here”.. Could anything better happen to us? We’re going to get inside one of those gorgeous houses, hooray! The house is quite small even though it has 3 floors.. “All the houses here are like this, everyone thinks we live in the mansion,” says Uncle Fikret and excitedly invites us to a place.. As he lifts the mirror on the wall, an embroidered carved wall and faucet come out from behind the mirror.. Many houses in the region had such old things coming out of them, Uncle Fikret looked at it like he had a good eye, it still looks solid.. Then we visit the rest of the house, everywhere is wood, in the warmth of a grandmother’s house, the walls have fallen from place to place, but it looks beautiful, don’t ask! What a joy to be involved in a foreign life all of a sudden.

As a result, we say goodbye to Uncle Fikret, promise that we will go again (we will) and we will walk away with a smile on our faces, promising that we will listen to the advice “don’t write like those others”.. Yes, we don’t know how accurate it is to generalize, but somehow Uncle Fikret identifies with the people of Balat in our minds and we are one step closer to loving this place.. Now continue to explore the touristic places.

Fener Greek High School

We would like to clarify an issue that we are confused as the public, gather! Sir, that red-colored building that you see from the opposite side and you are struck by its beauty every time, is not the Fener Greek Patriarchate or the Red Church, it is the Fener Greek High School. This building, built in 1881, is just as it seems from afar. It is incredibly majestic and magnificent, so it is useful not only to look from afar, but also to go up close.. Unfortunately, you do not have the opportunity to enter the garden of the school, it is closed.. The reason is that magnificently developed brains and some “overworked” minds describe this place as a “school of infidelity” and sometimes take actions that harm the school.. We’re talking about murderous things like throwing stones at their windows and stuff.. Anyway, let’s not stop here, unfortunately you only have to examine and photograph it from the outside, but it is definitely worth seeing.

-If you want to take a classic Balat photo from the last period you’ve been seeing on Instagram, Sancaktar Hill‘ After you go up the hill to the high school, you just have to look behind you.. You know, we’re talking about that pink building located right in the middle of two streets, with sea views from both sides.

–The Church of Our Lady of the Mongols, or Bloody Church is located very close to Fener Greek High School, you can take a look there while you are there.