Kadikoy

Kadiköy, ancient and Byzantine Chalcedon, is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district of Istanbul, Turkey on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara, facing the historic city centre on the European side of the Bosporus. Kadiköy is also the name of the most prominent neighbourhood of the district, a residential and commercial area that, with its numerous bars, cinemas and bookshops, is the cultural centre of the Anatolian side of Istanbul. Kadiköy became a district in 1928 when it was separated from Üsküdar district. The neighbourhoods of Içerenköy, Bostanci and Suadiye were also separated from the district of Kartal in the same year[citation needed], and eventually joined the newly formed district of Kadiköy. Its neighbouring districts are Üsküdar to the northwest, Atasehir to the northeast, Maltepe to the southeast, and Kartal beyond Maltepe. The population of Kadiköy district, according to the 2007 census, is 509,282.

Kadiköy is an older settlement than most of those on the Asian side of the city of Istanbul. Relics dating to 5500-3500 BC (Chalcolithic period) have been found at the Fikirtepe Mound, and articles of stone, bone, ceramic, jewelry and bronze show that there has been a continuous settlement since prehistoric times. A port settlement dating from the Phoenicians has also been discovered. Chalcedon was the first settlement which the Greeks from Megara established on the Bosphorus, in 685 BC, a few years before they established Byzantium on the other side of the strait in 667 BC. Chalcedon became known as the 'city of the blind', the story being that Byzantium was founded following a prophecy that a great capital would be built 'opposite the city of the blind' (meaning that the people of Chalcedon must have been blind not to see the obvious value of the peninsula on the Golden Horn as a natural defensive harbour). Chalcedon changed hands time and time again, as Persians, Bithynians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, and Turks passed through the area, which was badly damaged during the Fourth Crusade and came into Ottoman hands in 1353, a full century before Constantinople. Thus, Kadiköy has the oldest mosque in Istanbul, built almost a century before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.[citation needed]

At the time of the conquest, Chalcedon was a rural settlement outside the protection of the city. It was soon put under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople courts, hence the name Kadiköy, which means Village of the Judge. In the Ottoman period, Kadiköy became a popular market for agricultural goods and in time developed into a residential area for people who would commute to the city by boat. The population was the typical Ottoman Constantinople mix of Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Jews and Turks. Kadiköy has several churches (Greek, Armenian, Serbian, Catholic, Protestant) and synagogues.

The major Haydarpasa Terminal of the Turkish State Railways is located close to Kadiköy's center, having served east- and south-bound international, domestic and regional trains until 2009. Haydarpasa Terminal was opened in 1908 as the terminus of the Istanbul-Baghdad and Istanbul-Damascus-Medina railways. This, along with the Sirkeci Terminal, has services to all Turkey.

The Sögütlüçesme railway station, the next station to Haydarpasa Terminal, is located also in Kadiköy. The terminus of the Metrobus line to European side of Istanbul is situated next to the railway station.

The M4 line of the Istanbul Metro runs from Kadiköy to Kartal daily between 6:00 and 0:04.

The centre of Kadiköy today is the transportation hub for people commuting between the Asian side of the city and the European side across the Bosphorus. There is a large bus and minibus terminal next to the ferry docks. Ferries are the most dominantly visible form of transport in Kadiköy, and the central market area is adjacent to the ferry dock.

Public transportation with terminus in Kadiköy

Various new year decorations in Kadiköy

Kadiköy is a busy shopping district, with a wide variety of atmospheres and architectural styles. The streets are varied, some being narrow alleyways and others, such as Bahariye Caddesi, being pedestrian zones. Turkey's biggest food market is there, starting next to the Osman Aga Mosque, and has an immense turnover of fresh foods and other products from all around Turkey, including a wide range of fresh fish and seafood, olive oil soap, and so on. There are also modern shopping centres, most notably the large Tepe Nautilus Shopping Mall behind the center of Kadiköy, and pavements crowded with street vendors selling socks, pirated copies of popular novels, and other products. In the streets behind the main post office, there is a large number of well-known bookshops selling both new and second-hand books, craft-shops and picture-framers, and a number of shops selling music CDs and related ephemera such as film posters and T-shirts. Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music is sold in the arcade named Akmar Pasaji, where associated items are also sold. On Sundays this area becomes a large second-hand book and music street market. Being a crowded shopping district, Kadiköy has many buskers, shoe shine boys, glue sniffers and schoolchildren in the streets selling flowers, chewing gum and packets of tissues.

At the top of the shopping district there is an intersection, with a statue of a bull, called Altiyol (Six Ways), where a road leads to the civic buildings and a huge street market called Sali Pazari (Tuesday Market). The working-class residential districts of Hasanpasa and Fikirtepe are located behind the civic buildings.

Kadiköy Municipality Süreyya Opera House

Kadiköy has many narrow streets filled with cafés, bars and restaurants, as well as many cinemas. Süreyya Opera House is a recent redevelopment of the same named historic movie theatre.

The market area is mostly closed to traffic and contains a wide variety of fast food restaurants serving toasted sandwiches, hamburgers and döner. There are also traditional Turkish restaurants and patisseries, bridge schools, wine houses, bars with jazz, folk and rock music, as well as working class tea and backgammon houses.

Behind the centre lies a large shopping and residential district winding uphill to the Bahariye Caddesi pedestrian zone. This area was transformed during the economic boom of the 1990s and many new bars and shops were opened.

Kadiköy's entertainment is generally not of the affluent type. It has a more working class ambiance; therefore, it is easier to find food of the like of kebab and fried mussels than haute cuisine, although one of Istanbul's most traditional Turkish cuisine representatives, Yanyali Fehmi Lokantasi and the foreign tourist attracting Çiya is found here. Also oldest candy, chocolate, Turkish delight makers of Istanbul; Baylan[6] and Haci Bekir[7] are located in Kadiköy.

Kadiköy does not have as much nightlife as Beyoglu (where nightlife also continues much later into the night), nor does it have Nisantasi's style of shopping or the Bosphorus for nightlife. Instead, it is often considered a modest alternative but may still be regarded as vibrant.

Istanbul Toy Museum in Göztepe has on display 4,000 toys and miniatures, from Turkey and abroad; many of the exhibits are antiques, some of which date back nearly 200 years. The first floor of the museum is actually the site of the Eyüp Toy Shop, a famous toy shop that had closed down in the 1950s.

Coastal areas

Along the coast, away from the centre of Kadiköy, there are many expensive shops and the area becomes more upmarket in neighbourhoods such as Moda and Fenerbahçe, which are attractive, long-established residential areas. These both lie within the bounds of the borough of Kadiköy, and have many restaurants, cafés and bars by the sea. There is a path here along the sea-front from Kadiköy; the tram to Moda calls here.

Moda is an old, quiet, cosmopolitan Istanbul neighbourhood, but is beginning to experience economic and aesthetic problems, with there being a lack of car parking and some run-down shops and other buildings. As elsewhere in Istanbul, many historic houses have been demolished and replaced with apartment buildings; however, Moda is generally considered one of the more pleasant residential districts in the city. There are numerous churches in Moda with active congregations, and well-known schools, such as the Lycée Saint-Joseph and Kadiköy Anadolu Lisesi. There is a small, attractive theatre in Moda named Oyun Atölyesi, founded by actor Haluk Bilginer.

Another smart new district is Acibadem. This area has one of the best-known private hospitals in the city and a long avenue of smart cafés, restaurants and ice cream parlours.

Beyond this area, the huge stadium of Fenerbahçe Football Club dominates the skyline. From here, the long shopping street named Bagdat Caddesi (Baghdad Avenue) heads east and there are many affluent neighbourhoods between the avenue and the coast. Until the 1950s these areas, such as Kalamis, Göztepe, Caddebostan, Bagdad Avenue, Erenköy, and Suadiye, were full of summer houses and mansions for the city's wealthy upper middle class. Since the Bosphorus Bridge was built, it has become easier to commute from here to the European side of Istanbul, and most of these summer houses have been demolished and replaced with modern apartment buildings; however, these districts many still be considered among the most beautiful residential areas of the city. The coast here has a long stretch of seaside parks and yacht marinas, and the streets behind the coast in areas such as Caddebostan are lined with numerous bars and cafés.

From Bostanci onwards the economic level progressively lessens, so there are more retired and working-class residents here. There are no more villas, excepting some on the coast at Dragos, and the apartment buildings are narrower and less widely spaced. Bostanci itself is a busy shopping district built around a railway station.

Inland areas

Inland from the coast there is a great deal of housing development: some of this has little infrastructure, while most is more expensive, especially in areas such as Kozyatagi and Içerenköy. These districts house many of Istanbul's upper-middle class residents. These neighbourhoods are mainly built around wide avenues and tree-lined streets, with four to six-storey apartment buildings that have sizable gardens and car-parking around them. Especially in Kozyatagi, there are old Ottoman houses nearly in every houses' garden (Each house or apartment has a big garden with parking lots and arbours while these gardens used to be the old house's). Kozyatagi, Suadiye and Kazasker used to be one of the most popular summer areas for wealthy Istanbul residents. Today, Kozyatagi has tree-lined streets, especially magnolia, linden and fruit trees such as medlar trees, plum trees, cherry, mulberry and quince trees, lots of large greenfields, parks, children parks. These areas, Suadiye, Bagdat Caddesi, Kalamis, Kozyatagi, Fenerbahçe have today, upper-middle or upper class residents. There are many schools, hospitals, shops and restaurants in these areas. There is also a large Carrefour and Bauhaus store on the E5 highway in this part of Kadiköy.

In the late 1990s, new luxury housing developments such as Atasehir began to be constructed in the previously undeveloped area north of the E5 highway. These have their own shops, private colleges, sports centres and other facilities. Atasehir separated from Kadiköy in 2009 elections