Walking slowly through the streets of the neighborhood it is possible to observe, admire and be intrigued by its charm and its thousand details: traditional cafes, local boutiques of bags and shoes, artisan jewelers, shops and many art galleries dot the streets and corners of the area, and alternate with the windows of inviting pastry shops and the typical mosques of the neighborhood.

But the most famous attraction of Beyoğlu is certainly the Galata Tower, with its unmistakable profile, which at sunset becomes one of the most photographed places of interest in the Turkish city, with the colors and shades that make it even more fascinating at sunset.

The best way to enjoy the spectacle of the glimpse of the Tower overlooking the Golden Horn is from the ferry departures of Eminou, where the famous Galata Bridge begins its crossing to Kadikoy: the Bridge is also the classic access point to the neighborhood, the gateway to reach the wonders of both a historic and modern area, the key to deciphering the secrets of a different Istanbul, able to search for its own identity by differentiating itself from the rest of the metropolis.

Some of the most emblematic places in Beyoğlu are Taksim Square and Gezi Park – known for being the scene of the riots and demonstrations of 2013. The new Atatürk Cultural Center overlooks this very location, which reopened its doors in a renewed guise on October 29, 2021, on the occasion of the ninety-eighth anniversary of the Republic Day of Turkey: it is a center dedicated to contemporaneity, culture, art and sociality, with an eye to sustainability issues and with the aim of becoming one of the most important and complete cultural centers in the world. Strongly desired by President Erdoğan and Minister of Culture and Tourism Ersoy, the Atatürk Cultural Center is already the flagship of Beyoğlu’s Culture Street and all of Istanbul.

You then descend on Istiklal Caddesi, where the city’s iconic tram also passes: a stop at the Grand Pera, once a nineteenth-century Ottoman-style palace, now a private multifunctional space for art exhibitions, is a must. It is also worth stopping to visit the Turkish Cinema Museum, which tells of a film culture deeply rooted in the territory through a collection of period materials and equipment, as well as through a multimedia tour to learn about Turkish productions, films and filmmakers. After weaving, narrow streets, stairways and passages made of creativity and folklore, the long avenue ends at Tunel, the oldest metro station and museum in the world, whose construction began in 1871 and which still works today.

But Beyoğlu is also a district with a strong social vocation: it is one of the liveliest and most culturally active areas of the city, as well as the center of its nightlife. It is a neighborhood capable of blending a centuries-old history – such as that of the Galata Tower – with the events of the Pera Palace Hotel – where Agata Christie wrote “Murder on the Orient Express” – and with purely contemporary underground atmospheres.