District guide · Istanbul
Beyoğlu lies on the European side of Istanbul, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn, and serves as a district of diverse cultural institutions. The Ga...
Photograph · Zumrasha · Public domain
Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.
Editorial responsibility: Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
Beyoğlu lies on the European side of Istanbul, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn, and serves as a district of diverse cultural institutions. The Galata Kulesi and Taksim Meydanı stand as historical landmarks, while the Rahmi M. Koç Müzesi and İstanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi house collections of note. The district contains religious sites, museums, and transport connections to other parts of the city and outlying islands.
Checked 2026-09-04
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
13 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
Galata Kulesi
The Galata Tower is the Genoese watchtower on the hill across the Golden Horn, built in 1348 as the Christea Turris — the Tower of Christ — at the highest point of their walled colony.
Taksim Meydanı
Taksim Square is where modern Istanbul argues with itself. It is the head of İstiklal Avenue, the terminus of the metro, the hub of the municipal buses, and the place the country's politics spills into when it spills anywhere.
A regular Şehir Hatları commuter ferry across the Bosphorus, the everyday version of the Long Bosphorus Tour: no sightseeing stop, no turnaround at Anadolu Kavağı, just a working boat moving Istanbul residents between the European and Asian shores on a…
Galata Mevlevihanesi Müzesi
The Galata Mevlevihanesi is the oldest Mevlevi dervish lodge in Istanbul, established in 1491 during the reign of Bayezid II on land that had belonged to İskender Pasha, a prominent governor of the period.
Cumhuriyet Anıtı
The Republic Monument stands in the middle of Taksim Square and is the founding statement of the Turkish Republic rendered in bronze and marble.
Kamondo Merdivenleri
The Camondo Stairs are a short public stairway in Galata built by a banker so that he could get to work.
Kılıç Ali Paşa Camii
The man who paid for this mosque was born Giovanni Dionigi Galeni in Le Castella, in Calabria, around 1519.
Çiçek Pasajı is a covered arcade off İstiklal Caddesi in Beyoğlu, built in 1876 to the design of the architect Kleanthis Zannos and opened as the Cité de Péra.
Taksim Gezi Parkı
Gezi Park is a terraced park of four hectares — 9.88 acres — occupying the ground immediately north of Taksim Square in Beyoğlu.
500. Yıl Vakfı Türk Musevileri Müzesi
The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews tells the story of a community that has been in this city far longer than most of the monuments around it.
Atatürk Kültür Merkezi
The Ataturk Cultural Center closes the eastern side of Taksim Square, and it is the second building of that name to do so.
Galatasaray Müzesi
Galatasaray Museum is the official museum of Galatasaray Sports Club, one of Turkey's most prominent multi-sport organizations. Located in Istanbul, the institution preserves and displays materials related to the club's extensive history across football, basketball, and other athletic disciplines.
Sent Antuan Katolik Kilisesi
Behind a gate on İstiklal Avenue, set back at the end of its own courtyard, stands the largest Catholic church in Istanbul.
