once upon a time GALATA

Two fantastic panorama drawing of Galata "Vue de Pera, Galata et une partie de Constantinople" - 1721 (BnF/Gallica) Auteur : Dessonville (16..-17..) map maker ( Mercure boat) Type : hand made plan / profil vue General view of Galata and Pera from around Uskudar on the Mercure boat ( 1721 ) View of the ancien Galata castle (Customs when drawn in 1721 )  and today Karaköy district(actual Vapor port / Iskele)   View of Galata slope and Karaköy seaside, with houses on stilts between the city walls and the sea... On the top of the hill is the " Pera tower " as written on the legend...in 1721 Galata, Pera and Karakoy (today) with on the top of the hill the Embassy building of the Nederland (F)...we can see houses on stilts on the sea side and also some shelters probably for fishing boat... View of Pera and actual Tophane district with uphill the French palace (Embassy) (G) and the Galata school of administration (nowaday the Galata

The open flat area around Galata Tower is known today as Galata but from the Goad company's insurance map of 1905 we can see that in the 19th and early 20th century it was formerly known by the French name "place de la tour", effectively a French translation of the current name in Turkish "Galata Kule meydan". The square and the tower are situated on a natural geological plateau roughly half way up the Galata hillside where the natural bedrock (a type of shale) is often visible just below the surface. The area around the square has been occupied for hundreds of years at the very least, with the exception of some small sections of the Galata city walls, the buildings we see now mostly date to the period from 1850-1930, with a few later concrete constructions built in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The oldest apartment building on the square is "Appartement Pekmézian" (Pekmezian apartment) . It sits close to Galata Tower at the start of "Büyük Hen