Bakirkoy Istanbul - Bakırköy İstanbul Baştan Sona Yürüyüşü (4K) - Walking Tour 2021

Bakirkoy Istanbul - Bakırköy İstanbul Baştan Sona Yürüyüşü (4K) - Walking Tour 2021
Bakırköy is a neighbourhood, municipality and district on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. The quarter is densely populated, has a residential character and is inhabited by an upper middle class population. The municipality of Bakırköy is much larger than the quarter and also includes several other neighbourhoods, 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 "Bakırköy Ruh ve Sinir Hastalıkları Hastanesi", and is an important shopping and commercial center.

Bakirkoy Istanbul - Bakırköy İstanbul Baştan Sona Yürüyüşü (4K) - Walking Tour 2021
In the Byzantine period 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 Milion, the mile-marker monument of Constantinople).[3] Here - where nowadays the Ataköy Marina lies - the 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.[4] Two churches, dedicated respectively to St. John 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.

Hebdomon was a place of military exercise and concentration in what became known in Greek as the Kampos tou Tribounaliou (Greek: Κάμπος τοῦ τριβουναλίου) (in Latin Campus Tribunalis), where several Roman and Byzantine Emperors were elected through acclamation by the army.[5] Among them were Valens, Arcadius, Honorius, Theodosius II, Phocas, Nikephoros II Phokas.[5] The Campus lay in the valley of Veli Efendi, where now the horse race course lies.[6] The imperial court came often to the Hebdomon to attend military parades, to welcome the Emperor coming back from campaign, or to pray in the large church of St. John Baptist the Forerunner.[5]

Bakirkoy Istanbul - Bakırköy İstanbul Baştan Sona Yürüyüşü (4K) - Walking Tour 2021
Later the place acquired the name of Makrohori (Greek: Μακροχώρι "Long Village"), which was adapted to Makriköy (Turkish: Köy "village") in the Ottoman period, when many large houses were built there. Yesilkoy (San Stefano), located within the present boundaries of the district, was occupied by the Russians in 1877-1878, and the Treaty of San Stefano was signed there on 3 March 1878. By the pre-First World War period it was known as a holiday resort for residents within Constantinople proper.[7]
In 1925 the ancient denomination was changed to Bakırköy ("Copper Village") by a law suppressing place names of non-Turkish derivation.[8] It was a district in Beyoğlu province between 1923 and 1926 and also at that time included the present Avcılar, Bağcılar, Bahçelievler, Başakşehir, Esenler, Güngören and Küçükçekmece districts, the western boroughs of Zeytinburnu and until 1957 a small part of the Arnavutköy district. It was the biggest district of Turkey before the separation of Küçükçekmece.

Bakirkoy Istanbul - Bakırköy İstanbul Baştan Sona Yürüyüşü (4K) - Walking Tour 2021
The centre of Bakırköy is an important commercial district. There is a huge shopping district (including a number of huge shiny shopping centres as Carousel), a range of cinemas, bars and cafés, as well as conversion of streets to pedestrian malls.

Bakırköy is easy to reach by public transport; there are dolmusues to Beyoğlu throughout the night; there are buses to Mecidiyeköy (although using the D.100 highway by bus is unpleasant indeed: there is a ferry boat service that takes passengers to Kadıköy and Bostancı on the Asian side of the city and also to the Adalar (Islands); and the light-railway from the airport to Aksaray runs through here. Moreover, the quarter has a station of the suburban railway line between Sirkeci and Halkalı.

Built in 1913, Veliefendi Race Course, Turkey's largest and oldest modern horse-racing track (not including the ancient hippodromes in Turkey), is in close proximity.

Istanbul's largest mental hospital is in Bakırköy, and the parkland surrounding it is the largest green space in the district.

Bakirkoy Istanbul - Bakırköy İstanbul Baştan Sona Yürüyüşü (4K) - Walking Tour 2021
Bakırköy experiences a Mediterranean climate (Csa/Cs), bordering a humid subtropical climate (Cfa/Cf) according to both Köppen and Trewartha climate classifications, with cool winters and warm to hot summers. Bakırköy is, by a margin, the warmest district in Istanbul, with an average temperature of almost 15 °C (59 °F), with an especially significant difference in summer. Bakırköy is also one of the only districts in Istanbul with a USDA hardiness zone rating of 9b and an AHS heat zone rating of 4.[12]