World Heritage Identification Number: 356
World Heritage since: 1985
Category: Cultural Heritage
WHE Type: Historic Cities & Urban Areas
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇹🇷 Türkiye
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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Historic Areas of Istanbul: A Cultural and Historical Legacy
The Historic Areas of Istanbul, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, stand as a testament to the city's rich history spanning over two millennia. Situated within the Fatih district of modern-day Istanbul, these historic areas have been the epicenter of significant political, religious, and artistic events throughout history.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
With its strategic location on the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul has been associated with major political, religious and artistic events for more than 2,000 years. Its masterpieces include the ancient Hippodrome of Constantine, the 6th-century Hagia Sophia and the 16th-century Süleymaniye Mosque, all now under threat from population pressure, industrial pollution and uncontrolled urbanization.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (i): The Historic Areas of Istanbul include monuments recognised as unique architectural masterpieces of Byzantine and Ottoman periods such as Hagia Sophia, which was designed by Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Miletus in 532-537 and the Suleymaniye Mosque complex designed by architect Sinan in 1550-1557.
Criterion (ii): Throughout history the monuments in Istanbul have exerted considerable influence on the development of architecture, monumental arts and the organization of space, both in Europe and the Near East. Thus, the 6,650 meter terrestrial wall of Theodosius II with its second line of defence, created in 447, was one of the leading references for military architecture; Hagia Sophia became a model for an entire family of churches and later mosques, and the mosaics of the palaces and churches of Constantinople influenced both Eastern and Western art.
Criterion (iii): Istanbul bears unique testimony to the Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations through its large number of high quality examples of a great range of building types, some with associated artworks. They include fortifications, churches and palaces with mosaics and frescos, monumental cisterns, tombs, mosques, religious schools and bath buildings. The vernacular housing around major religious monuments in the Süleymaniye and Zeyrek quarters provide exceptional evidence of the late Ottoman urban pattern.
Criterion (iv): The city is an outstanding set of monuments, architectural and technical ensembles that illustrate very distinguished phases of human history. In particular, the Palace of Topkapi and the Suleymaniye Mosque complex with its caravanserai, madrasa, medical school, library, bath building, hospice and imperial tombs, provide supreme examples of ensembles of palaces and religious complexes of the Ottoman period.
Encyclopedia Record: Historic Areas of Istanbul
The Historic Areas of Istanbul are a group of sites in the capital district of Fatih in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. These areas were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.Additional Site Details
Area: 765.5 hectares
Number of Components: 4
(ii) — Significant interchange of human values
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
Coordinates: 41.00847 , 28.97993
Image
© please put the following link as a backlink in your article: Istanbul Tipps - Picture by Selda Yildiz and Erol Gülsen ., CC BY-SA 3.0 de Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
