Nişantaşı is a quarter of the Şişli district on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. It comprises neighbourhoods like Teşvikiye, Maçka, Osmanbey and Pangaltı. A popular shopping and residential district, it is one of Istanbul's most exclusive neighbourhoods. The area includes fashion shops, department stores, cafés, pubs, restaurants and night clubs. Abdi İpekçi Street, Turkey's most expensive shopping street in terms of lease prices, stretches from the neighbourhoods of Maçka and Teşvikiye to the center of Nişantaşı.
History
Nişantaşı was settled by Ottoman SultanAbdülmecid I in the middle of the 19th century. He erected two obelisks to define the beginning and ending points of the quarter. He ordered the construction of the Neo-Classical style Teşvikiye Police Station and the Neo-Baroque styleTeşvikiye Mosque for a proper district, encouraging the citizens of Istanbul to settle in the area. The word Nişantaşı literally means "Aiming Stone" in Turkish. Aiming stones were erected in the Ottoman period to mark the archery range records of the Ottoman archers and sultans. Some of these aiming stones, which are shaped like small obelisks and have Ottoman Turkish inscriptions on them, are still found on the pavements of Nişantaşı as monuments from the past. The inscriptions give information about the date, the shooter and the distance the arrow was thrown. Following the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, many Turks from Macedonia, especially Thessaloniki settled in the Nişantaşı quarter of Istanbul; including the family of the famous Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet. Apart from the Turks, the quarter also had sizeable Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Levantine communities. The building of Maçka Technical High School was originally constructed by the Italians to become their country's new embassy in Istanbul. However, when Ankara became Turkey's new capital in 1923, the building was donated to the Turkish Republic and has been used as a school ever since. There are three public primary schools on Nişantaşı Avenue and two public high schools Nişantaşı also includes the prestigious Feyziye Mektepleri Vakfı Işık Okulları which is a private school that has a kindergarten, primary school and high school in its campus. The school was established in 1885 as the Şemsi Efendi Primary School in the Ottoman city ofSelânik A number of the faculty buildings of the Istanbul University and Marmara University are also located in this area. Many Dönmeh moved to the area from Thessaloniki after the Greek-Turkish population exchange because they were Muslims and the population exchange was based on religion. When they first came to Nişantaşi, they settled in abandoned Greek houses. Many of their descendants still live in Nişantaşi where they are a tight knit community.
Today
Nişantaşı today is an elite shopping district and an affluent, secular residential area which is home to many creative types. The quarter forms the background to several novels by Nobel laureate Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is a local resident. Nişantaşı has the largest community of foreign residents in Istanbul after Taksim and Cihangir.
