Hasköy/Πικρίδιο

Hasköy(Πικρίδιο), or “imperial/fine village” in Turkish, is a neighborhood on the north waterfront of the Golden Horn. Earliest records date settlement of the neighborhood to at least the sixth century. With such a long history, what is now known as Hasköy has had many different names—Areovindou/Aravindou, or Arabant in Turkish (after a nobleman who built a summer house there); Pikridio/Πικρίδιο (in the eighth century after the monastery built by Ioannis Pikridios, and used thereafter by the Greek communities there); and Parasköy (after the neighborhood’s church). The origin of the name Hasköy itself is unclear with some attributing it to the private gardens of the Sultan in the region and others claiming it came from the establishment of Mehmed II’s tent in the area during the Siege of Constantinople. 

Postcard of Hasköy’s harbor (Source: Salt Research)

As with many other neighborhoods around the Beyoğlu and Galata region of the city, Hasköy was incredibly ethnically diverse with Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and later Protestant and Romanian communities. During the Byzantine period, accounts from the Second Crusade mention the presence of a Jewish community in Hasköy. Various waves of Jewish migration into Hasköy reaffirmed this early Jewish character beginning in the fifteenth century following the expulsion of Sephardic Jews from Spain. In the late 1590s, 40 Karaite Jewish families were transferred to Hasköy to make way for the building of the Yeni Valide Mosque in Eminönü. Evliya Çelebi, writing in the seventeenth century emphasizes this stating that in Hasköy there was one Muslim, one Armenian, two Greek, and eleven Jewish neighborhoods in Hasköy. This is emphasized by the 1691 poll tax records that counted 515 Jewish taxpayers in Hasköy. In the 1850s and 60s, Skarlatos Byzantios wrote that the neighborhood was “inhabited by Greeks and Armenians…the largest community is that of the Jews”.

In the nineteenth century, the neighborhood was known for its lively nightlife centered in its many meyhanes or taverns. Of the neighborhood taverns, thirteen

Hamparsum Limoncıyan (Source: Wikimedia commons)

were Jewish-owned, ten were owned by Armenians, and the other nine had Greek Orthodox proprietors. This lively culture supported many musical innovations with many of the important figures of Ottoman music, such as Armenian musician and theoretician Baba Hamparsum Limoncıyan reformer of Armenian church music, and Şemoil Mendil composer of Ottoman urban music and rabbi,  making their home in Hasköy. Beyond the taverns, Hasköy—located on the coast of the Golden Horn—was also a commercial hub in the nineteenth century. Hasköy’s harbor housed artillery barracks, warehouses, and notably the shipyard of Şirket-i Hayriye, the city’s most notable ferryboat company, built in 1861. The shipyard was also used to build boats for the Ottoman Navy.  

The Galata steamer of Şirket-i Hayriyye (Source: TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi)

The Greek Orthodox community of Hasköy worshiped at the Hagia Paraskevi of Pikridio Church (Αγία Παρασκευή Πικριδίου). Beginning as a small chapel established in the Byzantine period, it was later renovated into a proper church.

Hagia Paraskevi (Source: Gizem Sarı)

In 1692, with a subsidy granted by Constantin Basarab Brâncoveanu hospodar of Wallachia, construction on the building began. The church was later restored in 1724 and 1752 with leftovers of the funds from Brâncoveanu. The modern building of the church was renovated in 1833 under Patriarch Constantios I. Hasköy also had two hagiasmas (holy springs). One of these springs takes the form of a Byzantine fountain while the other is within the Agia Paraskevi church and was dedicated to Agios Panteleimon (Άγιος Παντελεήμων). The church also hosted the Beyoğlu Greek Orthodox Cemetery which was the final resting place of many high profile individuals. In 1688, the Grand Orator of the Patriarchate was buried in Hasköy transforming its cemetery into a prestigious site with many patriarchs, prelates, and scholars buried there. The last burial dates to 1866 due to prohibitions on burials in church precincts. 

Interior of the Maalem Synagogue (Source: World Jewish Travel)

The Jewish community of Hasköy worshiped at the Karaite (קָרָאִים) and Maalem (מעלם) Synagogues located opposite the Hasköy Seaport. The neighborhood was also the site of a prominent Jewish cemetery that was granted to the community in

The Kamondo Stairs (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

1581 by Sultan Murad the Third to accommodate deaths caused by a plague epidemic. The cemetery’s most famous resident is Abraham Salomon Kamondo (1781–1873), a Jewish Ottoman-Italian financier and philanthropist. One of the wealthiest people to live in the nineteenth century, Kamondo lent money to the Ottoman treasury and some of his construction projects can still be seen around Istanbul today. The cemetery was in use until the late nineteenth century. 

Hasköy was also home to a substantial Armenian population that migrated from the historic city into other parts of Istanbul including Hasköy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hasköy became an important center for Armenian education

Sırpuhi Kalfayan (Source: Salt Research)

and progress especially with the establishment of schools that served to support the intellectual development of the Armenian people. The Surp Aziz Nersesyan School (Սուրբ Ազիզ Ներսեսյան դպրոց), attached to the Surp Istepanos Church (Սուրբ Ստեփանոս եկեղեցի), was a mixed school built between 1823 and 1836 and was one of the leading Armenian schools in the city. The Kalfayan Girls' Orphanage, founded by Sister Sırpuhi Kalfayan, opened in 1866. It provided vocational training and a modern education to orphaned and poor girls and was even partially subsidized by the Sultan. Lastly, the Nubar-Şahnazaryan School, founded by philologist, publisher, and educator Garabed Vartabed Shahnazaryan opened in the 1870s. 

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