Üsküdar was where the road to Asia began. North along the shore, Kuzguncuk may be named after a prison window.
Greeks from Megara founded Chrysopolis, "Golden City", here in the 7th century BC, a few decades before Byzantium. Later all trade routes to Asia started here, and armies heading east mustered.
In 1338 Orhan took it, giving the Ottomans a base within sight of Constantinople.
Sinan's Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, for Suleiman's daughter, rose beside the pier in 1543/44–1548; before the coast road, you reached it by boat. About 200 metres out sits the Maiden's Tower.
Now Kuzguncuk, 7,624 people in an 1894 count, 230 of them Muslim. Its name has three versions: Kuzgun Baba, a holy man said to have lived here under Mehmed II; Kosinitza, an older name; or the dictionary word for the small barred window of a prison door.
On İcadiye Caddesi an Armenian church (wood 1835, stone 1861) and a mosque (1952, on former church land) share a courtyard. Locals say the domes were built to the same height so neither faith stands above the other. Oral historian Kürküt notes the minaret is taller than the steeple.
The village garden is still İlya'nın Bostanı, after İlya Soro, a Greek gardener who sold its vegetables until the 1990s. It outlasted 1990–2014 plans for a hospital and a school, reopening as a community garden in April 2015.
Ferry from Eminönü or Beşiktaş to Üsküdar; the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque is by the pier. For Kuzguncuk, the winter timetable lists a few boats a day from Kabataş, about 15 minutes (weather can cancel the stop; verify the day before), or M5 to Fıstıkağacı and about 1.1 km on foot. Walk İcadiye Caddesi to the church, the mosque, the garden. It's a neighbourhood: no photo shoots on private doorsteps.
