Architecture of Istanbul
The architecture of Istanbul describes a large mixture of structures which reflect the many influences that have made an indelible mark in all districts of the city.
The architecture inside the city proper contains buildings and structures which came from Byzantine, Genoese, Ottoman, and modern Turkish sources.
The most important monuments of Roman architecture in the city include the Column of Constantine (Turkish: Çemberlitaş), which was erected in 330 by Constantine the Great for marking the declaration of the new capital city of the Roman Empire and contained several fragments of the True Cross and other artifacts belonging to Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary, the Mazulkemer Aqueduct, the Valens Aqueduct, the Column of the Goths in Gülhane Park, the Milion which served for calculating the distances between Constantinople and other cities of the Roman Empire, and the Hippodrome of Constantinople which was built following the model of the Circus Maximus in Rome.
The northwestern section of the land walls was built in 627, during the reign of Heraclius (610–641), in order to accommodate the suburb of Blachernae, and added to by later emperors.
The Column of Marcian (Turkish: Kıztaşı) erected by Marcianus (reigned 450–457) dates from the same period as the triple land walls of Theodosius II.
The final structure of the Chora Church that exists reflects the five additions that were finished during the tenure of the last ktetor, Theodore Metochites, from 1316 to 1321.
Ancient Athenian general Alcibiades, after the naval victory at Cyzicus, possibly built a custom station for ships coming from Black Sea on a small rock in front of Chrysopolis (today's Üsküdar).
The Ottoman Turks built the Anadoluhisarı on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in 1394, and the Rumelihisarı at the opposite (European) shore, in 1452, a year before the conquest of Constantinople.
The main purpose of these castles, armed with the long range Balyemez (Faule Metze) cannons, was to block the sea traffic of the Bosphorus and prevent the support ships from the Genoese colonies on the Black Sea ports, such as Caffa, Sinop, and Amasra, from reaching Constantinople and helping the Byzantines during the Turkish siege of the city.
Following the Ottoman conquest of the city, Sultan Mehmed II initiated a wide scale reconstruction plan, which included the construction of grand buildings such as the Eyüp Sultan Mosque, Fatih Mosque, Topkapı Palace, The Grand Bazaar and the Yedikule (Seven Towers) Castle which guarded the main entrance gate of the city, the Porta Aurea (Golden Gate).
Istanbul especially became a major center of the Art Nouveau movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with famous architects of this style like Raimondo D'Aronco building many palaces and mansions in the city proper and on the Princes' Islands.
His most important works in the city include several buildings of the Yıldız Palace complex, and the Botter House on İstiklal Avenue.
The famous Camondo Stairs on Bankalar Caddesi (Banks Street) in Karaköy (Galata) is also a beautiful example of Art Nouveau architecture.
Other important examples are the Hıdiv Kasrı (Khedive Palace) on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, Flora Han in Sirkeci, and Frej Apartmanı in the Şişhane quarter of Beyoğlu.
The wooden seaside chalet mansions retained their basic architectural principles until the middle of the 19th century, when they were gradually replaced by less flammable brick houses especially during the First Constitutional Period.
One of the most iconic contemporary buildings is the Istanbul Sapphire, a blue-glass skyscraper that contains a popular shopping mall and a rooftop viewing platform.
[19] After the 2011 Van earthquakes Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: "Municipalities, constructors and supervisors should now see that their negligence amounts to murder.
[17][21] Improvements included design supervision and site specific hazard definitions,[22] and for new buildings in vulnerable regions required rebar in high quality concrete.
[13] In a bid to shore up support going into the 2018 Turkish presidential election, the government offered amnesties for violations of the building code, allowing non-compliance to continue with the payment of a fee.
