Mecidiyeköy means "Mecid's Village" in Turkish, a name it acquired because it was during the reign of the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I that it started to be settled.

[4] Mecidiyeöy barely features on the sightseeing radar although there are a couple of things to attract the curious, most obviously the Abide-i Hürriyet (Liberty Monument) isolated amid the traffic chaos where Halaskargazi Street meets the D100 flyover.

The monument commemorates the so-called 31 March incident when counter-revolutionaries attempted to overturn the new Young Turk government and return Sultan Abdülhamid II to the throne.

Buried in the Rum (Greek) Cemetery are the founders of the tiny and controversial Turkish Orthodox Church, Papas Eftim I, II and III.

The motorway Otoyol 1 that forms the inner half ring road of Istanbul connecting European and Asian parts via the Bosphorus Bridge, runs through Mecidiyeköy on a viaduct.