Kuzguncuk

Kuzguncuk is a small neighborhood in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.  Situated on a hill that slopes down to the water, Kuzguncuk first developed as a small fishing village that dates back to the Byzantine Era.  After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and throughout its Ottoman history, Kuzguncuk operated as a small commercial and trading outpost.  Consistent with the empire’s accepting policies of non-Muslim religions and ethnicities, the village has been seen as a microcosm of the larger city; its population throughout the centuries has been held by a large percentage by Armenians, Jews, Christians, and Greeks.  This multiculturalism is reflected in Kuzguncuk’s architectural history, which, unlike many parts of current day Istanbul, is being actively preserved.  Today, however, the quaint picturesque village is largely populated by Turks, a product of the Turkification of Istanbul following the onset of the Turkish Republic.