Long before Turkey sought to join the European Union, the European powers were eager to penetrate deep into Turkey’s hinterland.
On the eastern side of the Bosphorus, maybe just 20 steps into Asia, stands one of the finest relics of this failed imperial ambition.
Hydarpasha railway station was designed by two German architects Otto Ritter and Helmut Conu in the neo-renaissance style. That at least is what the guidebooks tell you.
The building sits astride the end of the platforms with a tower at each of its front corners looking for all the world like some provincial German town hall.
The stone is dirty. The whole edifice slightly decaying. But once inside the vaulted ticket office, there is no doubting the grandeur of the enterprise of which this was the westernmost gateway.
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