The Missing Film: An Evening in Yeşilköy

1. 01
   Exploration

   Stand on 155 Years of Railway History

   Start at Yeşilköy Train Station, on Istanbul’s first railway line. The fifteen-kilometre section between Yedikule and Küçükçekmece was ceremonially opened on 4 January 1871, which means the route you cross today by Marmaray is the very same corridor used by the city’s first trains.

   Yeşilköy Tren İstasyonu, Istanbul, Turkey
2. 02
   Culture

   See Two Communities One Street Apart

   Visit the Agios Stefanos Greek Orthodox Church in Yeşilköy. The Greek community’s church opened on 28 November 1845 as a three-aisled basilica measuring twenty-two by fourteen metres. The Armenian community’s church dates to the year before, 1844. Standing only a few hundred metres apart, they are one of the clearest signs of how many languages were once spoken in this district.

   Agios Stefanos Rum Ortodoks Kilisesi, Yesilkoy, Istanbul, Turkey
3. 03
   History

   Find the Light Burning for 170 Years

   Walk to Yeşilköy Lighthouse and find the stone tower that has been shining from the same spot since 1856 and still operates today. The tower is sixteen metres tall, rises twenty-three metres above sea level, and its light can be seen from ten miles away. Its original name used the district’s old name: Ayastefanos Lighthouse. Sources still disagree on who built it—whether the Ottomans or the French during the Crimean War.

   Yeşilköy Deniz Feneri, Istanbul, Turkey
4. 04
   Photography

   Look Toward a Beginning Without Proof

   Finish at the Yeşilköy coast by the marina and look west. Out there, in what is now a military zone, once stood a monument to Russian soldiers who died in the 1877–78 war. It was blown up with dynamite on 14 November 1914. Many say Turkish cinema began here because the demolition was filmed. But that film has never appeared in any archive and has never been found.

   Yeşilköy Marina, Istanbul, Turkey

Check opening hours before you go. Hours, access conditions and weather can change.