From the Galata Bridge to Haghia Sophia - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 17

2
From the
Galata Bridge
to Haghia Sophia
The area around the Stamboul end of the Galata Bridge, known as
Eminönü, is the focal point of Istanbul's colourful and turbulent
daily life. Throughout the day and early evening a steady stream of
pedestrians and traffic pours across the bridge and along the highway
that parallels the right bank of the Golden Horn, while an endless
succession of ferry-boats sail to and from their piers around and under
the Galata Bridge, connecting the centre of the city to its maritime
suburbs on the Bosphorus, the Marmara and the Princes' Isles, as well
as to stops on both shores of the Golden Horn itself.
The quarter now known as Eminönü was during the latter period
of the Byzantine Empire given over to various Italian city-states,
some of which had obtained trading concessions here as early as the
end of the tenth century. The area to the right of the Galata Bridge,
where the markets are located, was the territory of the Venetians. The
region immediately to the left of the bridge was given over to the
Amalfians, and beyond them were the concessions of the Pisans and
the Genoese, who also had extensive concessions across the Golden
Horn in Galata. These rapacious Italians were as often as not at war
with one another or with the Byzantines, though at the very end
they fought valiantly at the side of the Greeks in the last defence of
the city. After the Conquest the concessions of these Italian cities
were efectively ended in Stamboul, although the Genoese in Galata
continued to have a measure of autonomy for a century or so.
Today there is virtually nothing left in Eminönü to remind us of the
colourful Latin period in the city's history, other than a few medieval
Venetian basements underlying some of the old hans in the market
quarter around Rüstem Paşa Camii.