Galata Tower Galata Tower The Galata Tower ("Galata Kulesi" in Turkish) — called "Christea Turris" (the "Tower of Christ" in Latin) by the Genoese — is a medieval stone tower in the Galata/Karaköy quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, just to the north of the Golden Horn's junction with the Bosphorus. It is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and offers a panoramic vista of Istanbul's historic peninsula and its environs. The nine-story tower is ( without the ornament on top, at the observation deck), and was the city's tallest structure when it was built. The elevation at ground level is above
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