On your right, look for the tall, peach-colored facade rising above a plain wall, with a big dark-green arched gate and a round rose window staring down at the street.
This is the Italian Synagogue of Istanbul, also called Kal de los Frankos-basically “the synagogue of the Franks,” a catch-all nickname Istanbul used for Western Europeans. It sits up here in Beyoğlu, just north of the Golden Horn, tucked onto Şair Ziya Paşa Street where the city feels like it’s always mid-conversation: footsteps, engines, a little echo bouncing off stone.
In the 1800s, Italian Jews in Istanbul formed their own congregation-Comunità Israelitico-Italiana di Istanbul-keeping community ties alive far from home. And then comes the hard reset: in 1931, the original building was demolished. What replaced it leaned into Gothic Revival style, giving you those pointed windows and that dramatic circular window-like the building dressed up formally, even if the street outside is in casual mode.
Ready for Arap Mosque? Just walk southwest for 5 minutes.
