İstiklal Avenue Art Nouveau and styles; as well as a few Art Deco style buildings from the early years of the Turkish Republic, and a number of more recent examples of modern architecture; starts from the medieval Genoese neighbourhood around Galata Tower and ultimately leads up to Taksim Square. Galatasaray Square is located at approximately the center of the avenue and is home to the oldest secondary school in Turkey: the Galatasaray High School (Galatasaray Lisesi), originally known as the "Galata Sarayı Enderun-u Hümayunu" ("Galata Palace Imperial School"). In the historic Karaköy (Galata) district towards the southern end of the avenue, it
Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church of Galata church. Historian Kevork Pamukciyan believes that the current church was built on the location of St. Sargis, an Armenian church in Galata, mentioned in two Armenian manuscripts from 1360 and 1361. The church and an Armenian quarter around it are recorded in an Ottoman survey from 1455 which indicated the "continuation of the Byzantine Armenian presence into the Ottoman period." In 1635 Patriarch Grigor Kesaratsi (Gregory of Caesarea) was buried at the wall of the church by Shahin Çelebi, a wealthy Armenian. The church was often damaged by fires. It survived the Galata fire of 1660. It burned almost entirely