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.
16 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.
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.
Masumiyet Müzesi
A novel and a building made in parallel, and neither is quite the illustration of the other.
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.
Rahmi M. Koç Müzesi
Istanbul's museum of industry, transport and communication sits on the northern shore of the Golden Horn at Hasköy, well upstream of the tourist city and reached by water more pleasantly than by road.
