The Surp Pırgiç Church in Karaköy, #Istanbul is home to a unique ceremony that takes place once a year. The church was the first #Armenian Catholic church to be consecrated in the Ottoman Empire after the Armenian Catholic millet was recognised by Sultan Mahmud II in 1830.#Thread When the church was first opened in 1834, Istanbul was suffering from a major plague outbreak. A painting of the Virgin Mary & Baby Jesus that was sent to the church as an inaugural gift from the #Vatican was paraded around the streets of Istanbul to ward off the plague.

#Istanbul is a city of endless gentrification. The most recent episode in an endless series of urban transformation projects in the city is the demolition of the old brothels on Zürafa Street in Galata. #Thread 42 structures are being demolished in and around Zürafa Street. Most of these buildings, which had been used as brothels for decades, had little historical or architectural value.

#Ankara is too often portrayed as a model Turkish city, bereft of the cosmopolitan legacies of cities such as Istanbul and Izmir. I wrote about the little known non-Muslim history of Ankara in my first article for
@AjamMC #Thread
ajammc.com/2022/01/24/how… "Modern-day understandings of Ankara’s history, influenced and shaped by the discourses of Turkish nationalism, seek to paint a picture of Ankara in the Ottoman era as a small, remote, ethnically, linguistically, and religiously homogeneous town."

The most exciting restoration/conservation project currently taking place in #Istanbul is doubtlessly that of the long-neglected Bukoleon Palace, an ancient #Byzantine structure built on the shores of the Marmara Sea in the 5th century. The restoration work is being carried out by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (@IbbMiras) and is set to conclude by the end of this year. The Bukoleon Palace will be converted into an open-air museum.

The Jewish cemetery of #Salonica was once the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, with over 350,000 graves. Its destruction began with the Hellenising policies of interwar Greece and concluded in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of the city. #Thread Whereas the Jewish cemetery was destroyed and incorporated as part of the Aristotle University, #Salonica’s Dönme cemetery became a football field, and the city’s main Muslim cemetery became the International Fair Ground.

Just finished making this map based on Avraham Galanté’s 1937 booklet on the synagogues of #Istanbul. There were once synagogues (Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Romaniote) named after all the places on this map that Jews came to the city from. Some of them still exist today. #Thread From the #Iberian peninsula there were synagogues named after: Portugal, Spain, Cordova, Granada, Aragon, and Catalonia. As well as two synagogues that are still standing today: Jaen / Çana located in Balat) and Majorca / Mayor (located in Hasköy)