Istanbul's painted old quarter
Balat
Steep cobbled lanes on the Golden Horn lined with narrow bay-windowed houses in red, yellow, blue and green.
Why Balat is painted timber red
Balat is a district on the southern shore of the Golden Horn in Istanbul. For centuries it was the main Jewish quarter of the city, with Greek and Armenian neighbours in next-door Fener. Its narrow houses, mostly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, have upper floors that jut out over the street. Many fell into decay in the later 20th century. Restoration from the early 2000s, and then cafes and film crews, brought fresh paint: the row of houses on Kiremit Street is now red, yellow, blue and green. Washing still hangs across the lanes. Up the hill stands a large Greek school in dark red brick, a landmark of the skyline.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Balat, Fatih" on Wikipedia. If you know Balat and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇹🇷 The saffron townSafranboluAn Ottoman town named after saffron, with white timber-framed houses under red tiled roofs.
🇹🇷 The cotton castlePamukkaleA hillside of white mineral terraces holding pale blue pools, formed by hot springs in western Turkey.
🇮🇳 The open-air gallery of RajasthanShekhawatiMerchant mansions in the towns of north Rajasthan are covered inside and out with painted murals.
🇮🇳 Land of mirror work and white desertKutchEmbroidery, tie-dye and block print in deep red and indigo, set against the white salt of the Rann.
🇮🇳 The silk cityKanchipuramA temple town in Tamil Nadu whose heavy silk saris pair strong body colours with contrasting gold borders.
🇮🇳 Red earth and a golden sphereAurovilleAn experimental township on red earth near Pondicherry, centred on the golden globe of the Matrimandir.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Shekhawati In: Digrajsingh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kutch In: Zeel Satyendra Modi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kanchipuram In: Ssriram mt, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Auroville In: Kaspar Konrad, Public domain, source
- Safranbolu Tr: Uğur Başak, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pamukkale Tr: Biologg, CC BY-SA 4.0, source