Galata Tower

About Galata Tower

Historical tower in İstanbul

The Galata Tower is one of the oldest and most beautiful towers in Istanbul and a symbol of the city, standing at the highest point of the old walls of Galata in the Beyoglu district north of the Golden Horn. The Genoese built it in 1348 as a watchtower for their trading colony and called it the Tower of Christ; a stone cylinder topped by a conical roof, about 67 metres high, it dominates the skyline of the European side. It is sometimes confused with the vanished Byzantine Galata tower of earlier times. Under the Ottomans it served as a prison, an observatory and a fire-watch tower, and legend tells that Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi flew from it across the Bosphorus on wooden wings in the seventeenth century. Today it is officially the Galata Tower Museum, an exhibition space and museum; visitors ride a lift and climb two flights of stairs to the circular gallery at the top. From the parapet there is a 360-degree panorama of all Istanbul: the historical peninsula crowned by Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, the Golden Horn and Galata Bridge, the Bosphorus and the Asian shore, one of the finest photo spots in the city, especially at sunset.

Where:

Istanbul, Türkiye