Beyoğlu, Istanbul

Pera > Beyoğlu

These days the administrative district of Beyoğlu occupies the whole of the northern shore of the Golden Horn.
Traditionally it referred to the area formerly known as Pera, which extended northwards from the entrance to the Golden Horn and included Galata, a Genoese colony from 1273 until the Ottoman Conquest of 1453.

In the 17th century a number of European embassies were established on the hill above Galata, and during the 18th and 19th centuries, as Pera, it developed as the city's European quarter.
Today, the area around the pedestrianised İstiklal Caddesi, the main thoroughfare, maintains its cosmopolitan atmosphere as a shopping and entertainment district.
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