Scutari

From Phantis
Revision as of 15:38, March 8, 2009 by Angellight 888 (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Scutari (Greek Σκούταρι, Turkish: Uskudar) is a large and densely populated suburb of Istanbul, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus right opposite the heart of the great city, next to Kadıköy. It is home to about half a million people.

History

Scutari (ancient Chrysoupolis) was a city in Bithynia founded in the 7th century BC, in a valley leading down to the Bosphorus shore, by the inhabitants of the Greek colony of Chalcedon and was first known as Chrysoupolis (city of Gold) (perhaps because it was a wealthy little port, or because of the way it shone when viewed from Byzantium at sunset). The city was used as a harbour and shipyard and was an important staging post in the wars between the Greeks and Persians. In 410 BC Chrysopolis was walled by the Athenian general Alcibiades. As its larger and more important neighbor across the Bosphorus grew, the town became a toll-booth for the Bosphorus and later became the first point of defence of Byzantium against the Ottoman armies. Byzantine armies were stationed here, but to no avail; by the time Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453, Scutari had already been in Turkish hands for 100 years.

In the Ottoman period Scutari was one of the three communities outside the city walls (along with Eyüp and Galata). The area was a major burial ground, and today many large cemeteries remain including Karacaahmet Mezarlığı, Bülbülderesi Mezarlığı, and a number of Jewish and Christian cemeteries.