- published: 16 Dec 2015
- views: 137638
This article is about a neighbourhood in Istanbul
Bakırköy is a neighborhood, municipality (belediye) and district on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey. The quarter is densely populated, has a residential character and is inhabited by a middle class population. The municipality of Bakırköy is much larger than the quarter and also includes several other neighborhoods, such as Yeşilköy, Yeşilyurt, Ataköy. Bakırköy lies between the D.100 highway (locally known as E-5) and the coast of the Sea of Marmara. Bakırköy has a large psychiatric hospital called "Tımarhane Bakırköy", and is an important shopping and commercial center.
During the Byzantine times Bakırköy was a separate community outside Constantinople, a well-watered pleasant seaside retreat from the city, and was called Hebdomon (Greek: Ἕβδομον, "the Seventh", i.e. seven Roman miles from the city walls). Here - where nowadays the Ataköy Marina lies - Emperor Valens built one of the two imperial Palaces bearing the name of Magnaura, while Justinian erected another Palace named Jucundianae, also placed near the seaside. Two churches, dedicated respectively to St. John Baptist the Evangelist and to St. John Baptist the Forerunner, the latter hosting the head of the Saint and burial place of the Emperor Basil II, were also erected here.