Sirkeci Station Main Entrance
Sirkeci Station lobby
Former portal to the boats across the Bosphorus behind Sirkeci Station. August 2020
Missed the train (and the boat)
On the first trip to Istanbul, I am certain that Brian and I must have walked by Sirkeci Station a bunch of times and never paid it any notice. After all, at the start of our round-the-world trip, Sirkeci represented the end of the line for the Orient Express. We had arrived by plane from New York to start our adventure, not end it. I am guessing we weren't feeling anything special for the old station. A shame we missed it since it still would have been receiving the Orient Express in those days.
Fast forward to the beginning of the Pandemic Years and I had just "escaped" from Iraq and arrived in Istanbul to try to get on a flight back home. I had to stay in Istanbul a few days and my work colleague SP, who escaped with me, wanted to relax more than explore, so I was on my own cautiously exploring. I really didn't go too far afield from the Sultanahmet district, but Sirkeci Station was nearby and I decided I needed to see the end of the famed Orient Express before I left town. I arrived too late. The station was open but not in use because modern Istanbul was now interconnected with subway and commuter rail and the old international rail link to Europe no longer served much of a purpose. At least the building was blissfully empty for taking photos.
I will admit to being underwhelmed by the station. It was built in 1890 and I expected something more akin to a grand rail terminal in Europe. In fact, it was a smallish station with a lot of wood finishings on the interior. It looked like a poor copy of something grander, deep inside Europe. I think arrival to that station in the days of the Orient Express really WOULD have made a passenger feel as if they were on the edge of Europe. By chance I also walked by one of the old ferry terminal buildings across from the rear of the station where passengers could have detrained, immediately had their bags taken to the pier, and jumped on a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul or maybe even to a more exotic destination. That old ferry terminal had been renovated into something modern (but keeping the original architecture) and impressed me far more than the train station. Nevertheless, arriving from Paris by Orient Express, getting off the train at Sirkeci, and then boarding a boat does sound like it was the stuff of adventure. There are periods of history I wish I could return to.
The Ottomans realized that their capital needed a link to Europe even if relations were usually war-torn or frosty at best. Originally the line was only from Istanbul to Sofia and onward to Belgrade and Sarajevo. Later it became incorporated into the European rail network and the famed Orient Express started running from Gare de l"Est, Paris to Sirkeci Garı, Istanbul. The original terminus was outside of Istanbul of the time and people demanded the station be closer to "downtown". That required the tracks to go along the old Roman walls by the palace gardens. Permission was granted by the Sultan and Sirkeci Station was built near what was then the business district of Istanbul, Eminönü.
The architect of the project was August Jasmund, a Prussian who was sent to İstanbul by the German government in order to study Ottoman architecture, but lectured architectural design at the School of Polytechnics in İstanbul. The terminal building which rises on an area of 1,200 m2 is one of the most famous examples of European Orientalism, and has influenced the designs of other architects. The building was also modern, having gas lighting and heating provided by large tile stoves, made in Austria, in winter
(Wikipedia)
I am slightly surprised at the above description and its supposed influence. The place might need a little sprucing up, but it doesn't look like it was EVER all that wonderful. How did it influence architecture elsewhere?
At least there is hope that Sirkeci will continue to function as a railway station. I read an article in a railway journal that it will be made into a commuter station (it still has a strategic position), but one of the row of double tracks leading to it will be ripped up to make a biking/walking path along the Bosphorus under Topkapı Palace Walls. Still there remains a chance the international trains from Europe may call on Sirkeci again, since the station has not been "decommissioned".
Add "Orient Express" to the list then? I think I might!
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