Kuzguncuk/Κουσκουντζούκ

yasmineakaki
Jul 6
5 min read

Updated: Aug 11

Pervititch Insurance Map (Source: Salt Research)

In its early history, Kuzguncuk was likely a Byzantine settlement connected to the Hermolaos Monastery (Μονή Ερμόλαου) built by Justinian II in the seventh century. The root of its name is contested with some sources attributing it to the Byzantine name Chrysokeramos which described the roof of the monastery. Others believe it comes from the Slavic or Albanian Kotsinitas. A third theory ties the name to the legend of Kuzgun Baba, a dervish who lived in the area during the conquest of Constantinople in the fifteenth century. Regardless of its exact origin, Kuzguncuk is a Bosphorus village built alongside a stream that cuts through a valley leading into the Bosphorus. The neighborhood faced the docks with a coastal road leading to Üsküdar. The enclosed geography of the neighborhood has helped preserve its historic fabric. Bordered in the north by the historic Jewish cemetery and to the south by the Fetih Paşa Korusu Park, the city is nestled by hills.

View from Üsküdar (Source: Cengiz Bektaş)

Waves of migration define the history of Kuzguncuk. With Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, early immigration of the Sephardim to Istanbul overpopulated Jewish neighborhoods in the city, pushing waves of migration to the Bosphorus villages in the sixteenth century. Wealthy Jews began to move to Kuzguncuk around the 1550s and 1560s. In the seventeenth century, Greek migration from Sinasos, a village outside of Kayseri, drove settlement into Kuzguncuk. The following century saw Armenian migrants following their Greek neighbors from the same region. In 1865 a huge fire swept through the neighborhood burning hundreds of shops. When the market area was restored the Şirket-i Hayriye ferry

company built a station connecting the neighborhood to the new steamboat ferry service to Istanbul. This led to new migration from the Anatolian provinces, mostly of Muslim migrants. Additionally, steamboat integration attracted Istanbul urban elites to build seaside yalı’s (wooden mansions) in the hills above Kuzguncuk and the shores of the Bosporus. The early Muslim population of the neighborhood also came from this elite group.

The geography of the city reflected its socioeconomic makeup with its richer population, including early elite Jewish settlers and Muslim urbanites, inhabiting the edges of the neighborhood while its working-class population lived in the interior near the neighborhood’s port. In the nineteenth century, Kuzguncuk was considered one of the poorer neighborhoods of the city. Its non-muslim population

Seaside mansions (Source: Çalıkoğlu Family)

was mainly made up of tradesmen and craftsmen as well as entrepreneurs operating shops, pharmacies and doctors' offices, corner stores, taverns, and a single shoe store. The Greeks tended to be coffeehouse owners, barbers, and innkeepers, the Armenians were known as jewelers and drapers, and Jewish workers were fishermen and grocers, and specialized in sea transport. The Istanbul Rower Artisans Register (Kayıkçı Esnafı Defterleri) recorded in 1802 writes, “all 58 rowers working in the Kuzguncuk dock were non-Muslims: 46 of those rowers were Jews and 12 were Christians”. By 1815, the neighborhood had 80 registered boatmen working out of the Kuzguncuk port. In 1914, the census recorded 1600 Armenians, 400 Jews, 250 Greeks, 70 Muslims, and 4 foreigners residing in the neighborhood.

Kuzguncuk was also home to a major gaswork facility located on Kuzguncuk Baba Nakkaş Street. The gaswork was built primarily to power the heating and lights of the nearby Beylerbeyi Palace, located between Çengelköyü and Kuzguncuk, with the surplus gas used for lightening the streets of Kuzguncuk. The gaswork began construction in 1861 by a French gas company and was completed in 1865.

By the early 1930s, the population of the neighborhood numbered approximately 4,000, 90% of which were minority groups (non-Muslim Turks). Even into the Republican era, the neighborhood's cosmopolitan nature was preserved. Some local testaments even argue that neighborly solidarity protected its minority populations from the 1955 pogroms refusing to join in rioting. Stories are told of Muslim neighbors taking Greeks into their homes to protect them and actively resisting attackers. Despite the unity expressed in these first-hand accounts, Greek and Armenian residents were still pushed out of the neighborhood over the next half century. The 1942 Wealth Tax forced many to sell their businesses and witnessed an economic shift where Greek, Armenian, and Jewish merchants and business owners who had controlled trade until the 1950s, handed dominance to Muslim Turkish merchants.

Religious Buildings

Hagios Panteleimon (Source: Cengiz Bektaş)

Hagios Panteleimon (Αγίου Παντελεήμονος): In 1836, the larger Hagios Panteleimon Church was built on the foundation of the Hermolaos Monastery from the seventh century. St. Panteleimon was a saint associated with healing and while there are twelve holy springs attributed to him in the city, the only church with his patronage is in Kuzguncuk. The church was rebuilt in the 1970s following a devastating fire in 1872 that burned over 500 buildings in the neighborhood including the church. It remains as a pilgrimage site to this day and receives visitors every July 27th.

Surp Krikor Lusavoriç (Սուրբ Գրիգոր Լուսավորիչ): In 1835, Armenians who had worked on nearby Beylerbeyi palace built the Surp Krikor Lusavoriç Armenian Orthodox Church. As the community continued to grow an addition of a priest’s room to the church was requested in 1868. Though most of Kuzguncuk’s Armenian community has disappeared, the church is still in use by members from other parts of the city.

Virane Synagogue: The synagogue is located in the upper part of the neighborhood on the edge of Kuzguncuk’s historical settlement core serving its long lasting Jewish community.

Schools

Kuzguncuk had schools serving all three of its minority communities. On Behlul Street was the Greek School and the Armenian school sat on Yenigün street. A French-Jewish association, Alliance Israelite Universelle, established a French language boys and girls school.

References

Guven, Erdem. “Kuzguncuk as a Village of Mutual Respect and Harmony: Myth or

Reality?” Journal of modern Jewish studies 10, no. 3 (2011): 365–382.

Karavin, Harika. “Translating Kuzguncuk: A Site of Tolerance and Solidarity.”

International journal of science culture and sport 3, no. 12 (2015): 457–457.

Mills, Amy. “The Place of Locality for Identity in the Nation: Minority Narratives of

Cosmopolitan Istanbul.” International journal of Middle East studies 40, no. 3

(2008): 383–401.

Mills, Amy. Streets of Memory: Landscape, Tolerance, and National Identity in

Istanbul. University of Georgia Press, 2010.

Germiyanoğlu, Celaleddin. “Beylerbeyi.” In Türkiye Diyanet Vakfi İslâm

Ansiklopedisi. İsam Türkiye Diyanet Vakfi