Nişantaşı, in the Şişli district north of Taksim, is the neighbourhood of luxury boutiques, Turkish designers and pavement cafés. It is laid out around a crossroads where Abdi İpekçi Avenue, Valikonağı Street, Rumeli Street and Teşvikiye Street meet, lined with buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district took shape in the mid-19th century, when Sultan Abdülmecid encouraged people to settle around the Teşvikiye Mosque. The streets are freely accessible; only the opening hours of the shops and of the City's Nişantaşı shopping centre, open every day from 10am to 10pm, matter. Allow half a day to wander.
Highlights
Abdi İpekçi Avenue
About 700 m long between Maçka and the Nişantaşı crossroads, this is the street of the big international luxury houses, set in stone buildings with carefully dressed windows. It was called Emlak Street until 1979; the city council named it after Abdi İpekçi, editor-in-chief of the daily Milliyet, who was assassinated on 1 February 1979 at the entrance to this street as he was returning home.
Teşvikiye Mosque
A first wooden mosque was built here by Selim III in 1794-1795, near the ground where the sultans practised shooting; Abdülmecid had it rebuilt in 1854, and it took on its present appearance during the works of 1877 and 1891-1892, under Abdülhamid II. Its neoclassical façade with a portico and its baroque-inspired decoration, attributed to the Balyan family of architects, stand out from the mosques of the old city. Its name comes from the Turkish word "teşvik", encouragement, recalling the policy of settling the district.
Inside Teşvikiye
Under the single dome, tall coloured stained-glass windows, crystal chandeliers and a carved wooden minbar create a setting closer to a 19th-century salon than to interiors lined with İznik tiles. The mosque can be visited outside prayer times, in clothing covering shoulders and knees, with a headscarf for women and shoes removed at the entrance.
The name Nişantaşı
"Nişan taşı" means "target stone": the district is named after the stelae commemorating the rifle shots of Selim III in 1790 and Mahmud II in 1811. From the reign of Abdülmecid onwards, the sultans' training ground became a residential district sought after by wealthy families.
Valikonağı, Rumeli and Teşvikiye streets
Valikonağı Street, about 1.1 km long, starts at Harbiye, at the end of Cumhuriyet Street, and crosses Nişantaşı towards Fulya; together with Rumeli Street, which runs down to Osmanbey station, it gathers ready-to-wear chains, Turkish designer shops and many cafés. The City's Nişantaşı shopping centre, at number 12 Teşvikiye Street, brings shops and restaurants together under one roof. Look up: many early 20th-century apartment buildings have kept their ornate balconies and Art Nouveau façades.
Orhan Pamuk's neighbourhood
The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate grew up in Nişantaşı, in the family apartment building he describes in Istanbul: Memories and the City (2003). The district is the setting for several of his novels, notably The Museum of Innocence, whose hero belongs to a wealthy Nişantaşı family; the museum born of that book is in Çukurcuma, in Beyoğlu.
Infos pratiques
Tips
The luxury boutiques are expensive, but the nearby Valikonağı and Rumeli streets have many Turkish brands at gentler prices. In shops displaying the Tax Free logo, visitors living outside Türkiye can ask, on presentation of their passport, for a tax refund form to be stamped by customs on departure. Extend the walk with the museum born of Pamuk's novel, the [Museum of Innocence](/fr/attractions/musee-de-l-innocence), or walk to [İstiklal Avenue](/fr/attractions/avenue-istiklal) via Taksim.
How to get there
Nişantaşı crossroads (Abdi İpekçi Avenue, Valikonağı, Rumeli and Teşvikiye streets), Teşvikiye, 34365 Şişli, Istanbul. Metro M2, Osmanbey station, Rumeli (Nişantaşı) exit, then about ten minutes on foot along Rumeli Street; Osmanbey is one stop from Taksim. On foot from Taksim Square: about 2 km along Cumhuriyet Street to Harbiye, then Valikonağı Street. Beşiktaş-Nişantaşı dolmuş. Maçka Park lies just south of the district, at the Maçka end of Abdi İpekçi Avenue.
Opening hours
Nearby
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