Fener is a quarter midway up the Golden Horn in the district of Fatih in Istanbul, Turkey. The Turkish name is derived from the Greek word "phanarion", meaning lantern, streetlight or lamppost; the neighborhood was so called because of a column topped with a lantern which stood here in the Byzantine period and was used as a street light or lighthouse.
A street in Fener
Fener district in c. 1900.
Exterior of St. George's Cathedral. The neo-Classical façade marks it out from other Orthodox churches in the Byzantine style.
Residence of the patriarch in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Fener.
The Golden Horn is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the Golden Horn help define the northern boundary of the peninsula constituting "Old Istanbul", the tip of which is the promontory of Sarayburnu, or Seraglio Point. This estuarial inlet geographically separates the historic center of Istanbul from the rest of the city, and forms a horn shape, sheltered harbor that in the course of history has protected Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other maritime trade ships for thousands of years.
An aerial view of Galata (foreground), the Historic Peninsula (background), and the new Galata Bridge, which straddles the Golden Horn and, connects its two shores at the point where it meets the Bosphorus (off the picture, left) and the Sea of Marmara (behind the Historic Peninsula). Seraglio Point is located at the eastern tip of the Historic Peninsula (center, left). The Princes' Islands are along the horizon, at upper left.
Seraglio Point from Pera, with the Bosphorus (left), the entrance of the Golden Horn (center and right), and the Sea of Marmara (distance) with the Princes' Islands on the horizon
The iron chain preventing a fleet from entering the Golden Horn, depicted in the 12th century Madrid Skylitzes.
Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky's "Dusk on the Golden Horn", depicting the estuary's trademark golden lights. The entrance to the Horn is in the foreground, with the Historic Peninsula (left), and Galata (right).
