Beyoğlu is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920 (2022). It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn. It was known as the region of Pera surrounding the ancient coastal town Galata which faced Constantinople across the Horn. Beyoğlu continued to be named Pera during the Middle Ages and, in western languages, into the early 20th century.
İstiklal Avenue in Beyoğlu
S. Antonio di Padova on İstiklal Avenue in Beyoğlu is the largest Catholic church in Istanbul and Turkey.
Galata Tower (1348) was built by the Genoese at the northern apex of the citadel of Galata.
A reception held at the Naum Theatre in honour of Giuseppe Garibaldi, who had lived and worked (as a teacher) in the Pera district of Constantinople (Istanbul) between 1828 and 1831. The Naum Theatre seen in this illustration served as the chief opera house of Constantinople, until it was destroyed by a fire 1870.
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).
