Where Istanbul Gathers: Taksim Square and Istiklal Avenue

A Brief History of Istanbul’s Most Public Space

Taksim Square and Istiklal Avenue are often treated as two separate places. In reality, they function as one continuous space where politics, commerce, culture, and daily life overlap in a way that feels uniquely Istanbul.

To understand one, you need the other.

Taksim: A Square Built for Control

The name Taksim comes from the Ottoman word for "distribution". In the 18th century, this area sat on the edge of the city and served as a water distribution point. The Maksem, which still stands near the square, divided water from northern reservoirs and sent it to different parts of Istanbul.

Later, the area became militarized. Artillery barracks were built where Gezi Park now sits, turning Taksim into a controlled zone rather than a public one.

That changed after the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The new state deliberately reshaped Taksim into a civic square, wide and open, suitable for gatherings, ceremonies, and visibility.

The installation of the Republic Monument in 1928 sealed that transformation. With Atatürk at its center, the monument marks the shift from empire to republic and anchors the square as a national symbol.

From that point on, Taksim became the place where the state and the public most often meet face to face.

Istiklal: From Grande Rue to People’s Street

While Taksim was being formalized as a national square, Istiklal Avenue evolved differently.

Formerly known as the Grand Rue de Péra, the street was the social and commercial heart of late Ottoman Istanbul. Embassies, theaters, cafés, and apartment buildings lined the avenue, reflecting the city’s cosmopolitan population of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Levantines, and Europeans.

After the establishment of the Republic, the street was renamed Istiklal, meaning "independence". Over time, embassies relocated, demographics shifted, and many historic buildings were neglected or repurposed. In their place came shops, cinemas, arcades, and later global retail brands. What remained constant was the street’s function as a corridor of movement, commerce, and visibility.

Today, Istiklal is Istanbul’s most heavily trafficked pedestrian shopping street, drawing millions of visitors each year. It operates simultaneously as a historic boulevard, a retail center, and a tourist funnel linking Taksim Square to Beyoğlu’s side streets.

Unlike Taksim, which was designed for ceremony and symbolism, Istiklal has always been about circulation. It is a street defined by passing through, whether for daily errands, nightlife, protest marches, or shopping bags in hand.

One Space, Two Functions

Taksim and Istiklal work as a single system.

Taksim is where crowds gather, pause, confront authority, or are confronted by it. Istiklal is where those same crowds disperse, shop, walk, argue, perform, flirt, protest quietly, or simply exist.

Political demonstrations often begin or end in Taksim, then spill down Istiklal. Celebrations do the same. On any given day, you might see tourists photographing the historic tram, street musicians competing for space, shopkeepers negotiating rent increases, and police vans waiting just out of sight.

This constant flow between square and street is what gives the area its energy and its tension.

The Taksim Mosque

The Taksim Mosque, completed in 2021, is one of the newest additions to the square and one of its most debated. For decades, proposals to build a mosque here were postponed due to Taksim’s role as a secular, civic space closely associated with the Republic.

Its construction marked a significant shift in how the square is defined. Positioned directly across from the Republic Monument and at the entrance to Istiklal Avenue, the mosque visually and symbolically alters the balance of the square. Today, it functions both as an active place of worship and as a clear statement about the changing relationship between religion, politics, and public space in modern Turkey.

What Taksim Square and Istiklal Avenue Feel Like Today

Enjoying the lively Istiklal Street

Today, Taksim and Istiklal are busy to the point of exhaustion.

Taksim is a transit hub, a security zone, and a symbolic stage. Istiklal is crowded, commercial, noisy, and still oddly intimate.

Luxury brands sit next to century-old arcades. Historic churches stand a few steps from fast fashion stores. Protests, celebrations, and ordinary errands all happen in the same physical space, often within the same hour.

It is not curated. It is not calm. It is not frozen in time.

Big hugs,

Gigi