The historic Sirkesi Terminal, built on a Sultan’s orders to provide a fitting station for his prestige and the Orient Express, is getting a thorough renovation that will turn it into a “cultural island” ahead of next year’s Istanbul Culture Road Festival.
When the renovation is finished, the existing railroad museum in the station will re-open, and will be joined by an emigration museum, highlighting the station’s role as a departure point for many Turks migrating to Europe in the 20th century.
The station opened in 1890, designed by a German architect who was charged with making it represent both Ottoman and European cultures and standards. It’s located just below the Topkapi Palace, then the main residence of the Ottoman emperors. The Orient Express last came to the station in 1977, and it lost passenger rail service in 2013, when the Marmaray rail tunnel under the Bosphorus was completed. In addition to the museums, it also serves as a station for a new tram line that opened last year.
I last visited the station some twenty years ago – primarily to look at the architecture – but I still remember seeing a regular, if infrequent, service to Syria listed on the (short) timetable. I mentally filed that as something we might want to do at some stage. However, not so long after that it didn’t seem such a good idea any more.