You may wonder: “What is PETRION?”

Hundreds of years ago, many ethnic groups co-existed in harmony in this neighborhood: Turks used to live in Cibali, Greeks and even Armenians in Fener, and Jews in Balat. They lived together for many years in this neighborhood, with invisible borders. This must be magic… the magic of the Golden Horn or of Istanbul. Istanbul is a city where many different ethnic groups and people with various backgrounds and religious beliefs live next to one another for many years just like a rainbow brings many colors together. 

“FENER” neighborhood was known as PETRION during the Byzantine period.  In ancient Greece, PETRION was the name given to the steep rock at the edge of the sea where people had built a fire to guide the ships. Legend has it that, when they had seen the fire burning on the rock, the sailors shouted “rock, ahoy!” back then. In other words, PETRION means the steep rock at the edge of the sea where people had built a fire to guide the sailors. 

Saying only “the rock where people build fire” does not do it justice because PETRION GATE (ROCKY GATE) is one of the 16 gates which are located on the city walls that enclose the old city along the Golden Horn from Sarayburnu to Ayvansaray.  The tempting and mysterious city gates of Istanbul may be the subject of another article.  Or the story of PETRION WALLS being the last region taken in the conquest of Istanbul…

For the time being, we just want to chase the rainbows in multi-colored Istanbul created by reflections coming from the firelight of PETRION, which was transformed from the word “rock” to FENER symbolizing “light”. 

Reflections coming from the Golden Horn…