Istanbul's Pera and Taksim Area and the Significance of its
Hotels for the City
Author: Hakan Silistre
Istanbul's modern city center, Taksim has gained its reputation
of being the heart of the living city not only because of its
convenient location but also because of many different cultural,
historic and artistic attractions that it offers to the
travelers. The hotels located in this part of the city is
significant to the development that the city has witnessed in the
last 4 decades. Taksim Square derives its name from the 1733
water distribution building built there, in which water
distribution for different districts of Istanbul used to be
administered. The word "Taksim" in Turkish means "distribution"
as it relates to where the water would be distributed from at the
time.
At the center of Taksim Square is the 12 meters high Republic
Monument which was designed by the Italian architect Pietro
Canonica and it symbolizes the foundation of the republic by
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.
The historic Pera, where is now officially called "Beyoglu" is a
long pedestrian-only district that starts at the Taksim Square
and swings through to Galata Tower for almost one and a half
miles. More than 55 private or state-owned Art Galleries and over
30 foreign Consulates can be found in Beyoglu.
Beyoglu houses many movie theaters such as Emek, Fitas or the
Alkazar. Most of the foreign movies are presented in their
original language with subtitles in Turkish.
Hotels located in the same area as Lamartine include Hyatt
Regency, Ritz, InterContinental, Hilton and many other smaller
sized hotels. Istanbul Hilton is especially an important hotel of
the area since it was the first of its kind in Istanbul. It used
to be one of Conrad Hilton's favorite hotels in the world as he
described in his 1957 book "Be My Guest." He does not forget to
mention the Istanbul hotel right at the beginning of his book,
where he presented his acknowledgments. He mentions that "his
greatest debt is to each individual who has ever been his guest
in any hotel - whether in Cisco, Texas, New York or Istanbul." He
was so proud of having his franchise in Istanbul because he
thought this was a place where the West connected with the East.
Throughout the book, he also mentions about a report he had about
the Istanbul Hotel on his desk that stated people from 38
different nationalities stayed at the hotel during April of 1957.
He describes in detail the time period he opened Hilton Istanbul
in one of the last chapters of his book that he named "Horizons
Unlimited." Conrad Hilton notes that "the moment he reached
Istanbul, he felt the antiquity, romance and mystery of this
ancient city". He thought this was a "tremendous place to plant a
little bit of America by building a hotel here that would be a
friendly center where men of many nations and of good will may
speak the language of peace."
Nearby tourist attractions include Flower Courtyard, Military
Museum, Dolmabahce Palace, AKM Cultural Center, Galata Tower and
Lutfi Kirdar Exhibition and Convention Center. Cicek pasaji is an
"L" shaped historic passage where many small taverns and seafood
restaurants are located side by side. It is one of the first
places of choice in the city for locals to take their foreign
guests for dinner during which they can see a unique environment
which presents what dinners at Pera used to be like for many
centuries. You can expect to see musicians stop by at each table
to play a song of choice of the table and expect to be tipped for
their services. They do not necessarily work for the restaurant
but go through them one by one.
Taksim is an ideal location for both leisure and business
travelers since they can reach many attractions in a few minutes.
The hotels of this area blending history and culture with comfort
and luxury make the area an excellent choice for prospective
travelers.
About the author:
H. Silistre - is the author for Hotel Lamartine's travel tips
section. Please visit Istanbul Hotels Guide at
Lamartine for more travel tips and city specific information
written solely for prospective travelers headed towards
Istanbul.
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