Tünel, İstiklal Avenue & the Nostalgic Tram
Why is it significant?
Stand in the little square at the bottom of İstiklal and wait for the bell. A small red-and-cream tram comes rattling round the turn, the driver clangs at the crowd, and right beside you, under a modest station building, a train you cannot see is climbing up through the hill.
Key Facts
| Place | Tünel, İstiklal Avenue & the Nostalgic Tram |
|---|---|
| Address | Tünel Meydanı, İstiklal Caddesi, 34433 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Türkiye |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.02910, 28.97460 |
| Part of Walk | Across the Golden Horn: Hidden Galata and Pera, Istanbul |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in the little square at the bottom of İstiklal and wait for the bell. A small red-and-cream tram comes rattling round the turn, the driver clangs at the crowd, and right beside you, under a modest station building, a train you cannot see is climbing up through the hill.
That hidden train is the Tünel. It opened in 1875, which makes it the second-oldest underground railway in the world, after the London Underground. It is a funicular, two cars pulled up and down a single tunnel of about five hundred and seventy metres, climbing some sixty metres from Karaköy to here. A French engineer, Eugène-Henri Gavand, is said to have had the idea after watching thousands of people toil up the steep stairs of Galata every day.
The story goes that in the first days passengers did not trust it, so it carried animals and freight before people would ride. Today the trip takes a couple of minutes, and nobody gives it a second thought.
Now look up the avenue. This is İstiklal Caddesi, once the Grande Rue de Péra, the main street of a district where embassies, Levantine merchants, Greek and Armenian shopkeepers, cinemas, patisseries and arcades lived side by side. It was renamed İstiklal, Independence, after the founding of the Republic. The great buildings behind the gates were embassies when this was the Ottoman capital, and most are consulates today. The little tram returned in 1990, as a nostalgic line running to Taksim.
Remember too the darkest night of this street. On 6 and 7 September 1955, rioting mobs attacked homes, shops, schools and churches of the Greek community across the city, and Armenian and Jewish property too. İstiklal was among the worst hit. The Greek community of İstanbul never recovered its numbers. Now leave the avenue for a moment: take the street to your left to Meşrutiyet Caddesi, where an old hotel has become a museum with one very famous painting.