Pera and Galata - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 412

Hacı Ali Ağa, first Turkish governor of the citadel of Galata; it still
bears his patronymic. It was moved to its present position in 1950
from Bereketzade's mosque a short distance away when the latter was
destroyed. Unfortunately, this charming rococo fountain has sufered
badly from being painted.
Behind the tower a steep and winding street, Galata Kulesi Sokağı,
leads downhill towards the Golden Horn. Not far down on the left
we see the queer folly-like tower that looks so extraordinary when
viewed from the two bridges; it is merely an example of Art Nouveau
and belongs to the Istanbul Hospital.
CHURCH OF SS. PETER AND PAUL
Farther down on the right is the extensive domain of the Dominician
church and monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, founded in the late
fifteenth century by the Genoese. Later it was taken under the
protection of France and became the French parochial church in
Galata. During the nineteenth century it became the parish church of
the local Maltese community, several of whose tombstones are built
into the courtyard wall along with an ancient Greek funerary relief.
The present church dates from a rebuilding in 1841 by the Fossati
brothers. At the rear of the monastery there is a fairly well preserved
stretch of the medieval Genoese wall that led up from the Golden
Horn to the Galata Tower, with two defence towers still standing.
At the next corner we come to a cross street, which on the left side
is called Kart Çınar Sokağı. The two buildings facing one another to
the left across the side street are Genoese, the one above dated 1314
and the other 1316. The latter is the former Palazzo Communale,
also known as the Podestat, the official residence and headquarters of
the Podesta, the Genoese governor of Galata. The Podesta retained its
original appearance until the late nineteenth century, when its façade
was rebuilt during the widening of the avenue below.
Turning right on the side street, which on this side is called Eski
Banka Sokağı, we see on the right a huge old building known as
the Han of Saint Pierre. This was built in 1771 by the Compte de
Saint Priest as the “lodging-place and bank of the French Nation”, as
recorded in his bequest. The French poet Andre Chènier was born in