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UK & Turkey Tile and Architecture Journey 45 [Istanbul Metro Tile Tour Part 2 & Returning Home]

mayumama
Continuing our tour of the Istanbul Metro... the last stop we arrived at was Yenikapı Station.
Stepping onto the platform, there was an atmosphere with a scale clearly different from the stations we had seen so far.
Numerous giant pillars stood tall, and the decorations were unified in a color scheme based on Turkish blue.
The pillars are covered in tiles with a transparent, glass-like quality.
The station name signs are also decorated with glass materials, and the colors are very beautiful.
The beams connecting the pillars are lined with the same beautiful Turkish blue vitreous tiles.
The motifs include geometric patterns and depictions of birds.
The wall tiles feature a design where a single pattern is divided into several parts,
and the beige grid-like elements remind one of grout lines, giving a sense of tile-based conceptualization.
When going up to the ticket gate level, there are even more tile murals lined up...
A bridge spanning the Bosphorus Strait.
A portrait of the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II.
This represents the project design for the undersea tunnel passing beneath the Bosphorus Strait.
It is said that Sultan Abdul Hamid II launched this project around 1892.
Although it was impossible to realize at the time, it was finally achieved over 100 years later with the Marmaray railway system, which opened in 2013.
It seems to be a ceramic mural created to commemorate these events.
Various materials were also used for the tiles.
Exiting the ticket gates, another magnificent space spread out before us.
Yenikapı Station is where the M1 and M2 metro lines intersect, and it is Istanbul's largest transportation hub, connecting to the Marmaray undersea railway, ferries, and buses.
It seems to be a station built to be worthy of that scale.
During the construction of the undersea railway, remains of a Neolithic settlement and 37 shipwrecks were unearthed. Historically, this is also the oldest land in Istanbul.
The entire station is covered in decorations that give it the feel of ancient ruins.

Medallions and band-like decorations that are neither clearly patterns nor text.
Motifs reminiscent of ship tools such as jars and oars are scattered throughout.
The giant pillars also feature things like birds and combs that look like they could have been drawn on ancient murals or pottery.
Yenikapı Station is a place where Turkey's prestige quietly exudes from the station space itself.
I was overwhelmed by its scale, and the design quality that reached even the smallest details was wonderful; as a traveler, being shown a station of this caliber made me feel a sense of hospitality so great it was almost overwhelming.
A station where many citizens and travelers come and go is the face of that country and that city,
and it is an important entrance that determines the first impression.
It made me wish that Japan would also consider station designs that could provide this level of inspiration.

There are other tile artworks scattered throughout the station premises.
An abstract work with colorful use of color.
A large ship is in the center, with fish in the swirling waves and seagulls in the sky.
At Yenikapı, ruins of the Theodosius Harbor and shipwrecks have been found,
and this seems to be art that symbolizes those discoveries.
Tiles with expressive surroundings
The color of the glass in the sea section is beautiful.
Here, tiles are applied to surround the window of what looks like a station office room.
Glass tiles with unique colors and textures
This art seems to represent the land sandwiched between the sky and the sea.
The central part, which imagines the land, is rich in expression, with swirls, protrusions like octopus tentacles, and Islamic geometric patterns carved into it.

The number 1453 is the year Constantinople fell, and it is also the year the current Istanbul began.
The relief seemed to represent the transition of the city of Istanbul.


I transferred from Yenikapı Station to the M1 line and discovered wonderful tile decorations at Emniyet Station.
Against a background of fine, plain mosaic tiles, there are beautiful assembled tiles that could be called Iznik tile reproductions.
The surroundings are decorated with tiles in vivid Turkish blue.
Several tiles of this same design were applied to the platform.

Looking at the lines, they seem to be hand-painted rather than printed, and the center is gorgeous, with tulips, carnations, and pomegranate patterns interspersed with saz leaves.
I realized that traditional Turkish Iznik tiles are being passed down to the present day in such a beautiful form.

Tiles decorated on the stairs from the platform to the ticket gate floor, etc.
I felt that this Turkish blue, which appeared frequently, is indeed used as the theme color for the entire subway and as a national color.
I rode the M1 line for a while after this, but it soon went from underground to running above ground,
and no notable tiles were seen, so this subway tile tour ends here.
I decided to spend the remaining time around Aksaray, where my hotel is located.
This mosque is the Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Mosque, which I passed by early in the morning when it wasn't open yet.
Its appearance seen from outside this gate is also beautiful.

Inside the mosque, although not tiles, you can see a dome with very detailed hand-painted decorations,
as well as a marble mihrab and pulpit.
The dome decoration is somewhat Western-looking, and perhaps because of its small scale,
it is quite dense.
The setting sun was just hitting it, and divine light was shining into the dome.
People praying, people resting... many people are standing there in their own ways.
The density of the glass in the chandelier is also high.
This wooden staircase is also nice.
Eight-pointed star skylight
Cats living in this mosque?
Is the cardboard house someone made also being used?!
Plenty of food and water too.
Turkish cats are truly blessed.
There was one more mosque quietly standing in the old town of Aksaray, the Baklali Kemalettin Mosque.
It was founded in the early 16th century during the Ottoman Empire, but it has repeatedly suffered from fires and been rebuilt.
The current building was reconstructed in 2000.
I thought the geometric openwork windows were beautiful, so I went inside and found that tiles were used extensively near the entrance.
There are also Iznik tiles inside the pointed arch niche above the entrance.
The area around the entrance stairs is also covered in tiles.
The ceiling is painted.
They look new, but they seem to be hand-painted.
The inside was darker than I expected, and I could barely see the openwork windows with colored glass.
A door with geometric patterns carved into the wood and a doorknob.

After this, I went around to supermarkets and other places to buy souvenirs, dropped off my luggage, and wandered around the back of the hotel to have dinner.
I discovered an apartment covered in mosaic tiles.
An apartment with blue mosaic tiles scattered on a white background.
It has a one-point mosaic decoration.
There is also a type of window grille that bulges at the bottom.
A tea shop on the street with cute table sets lined up.
Old men are relaxing there.

Is that a carpet spread out as a tablecloth?!
Is that a pot for sugar cubes for tea on the table?
I wanted to eat a tortilla with kebab in it, so I searched for one and found it.
I'm so happy it's charcoal-grilled~
It's too delicious~~
Why does everything taste so good when it's wrapped in a flatbread?
The cute cat I met at the end.
After the meal, I returned to the hotel, packed my bags in the room next to the front desk, and relaxed with the hotel cat until the scheduled airport bus time.
I'm happy I could spend time with the cats until the very end.
Then, I took the airport bus from the bus stop a stone's throw from the hotel and headed home from Istanbul Airport.
With this, the long and intense trip to the UK & Turkey has come to an end.

The 7-day trip on-site eventually turned into 40 articles.
Every day was a series of new discoveries, so how long each day felt... The sense of time where a year feels longer when you are in elementary school than it does now that you are an adult is something I am always reminded of when I go abroad.
Anyway, I'm glad I was able to complete the record~

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