Lands which didn’t fit into the City: The Market Gardens of Istanbul

Abstract

With the conquest of Istanbul, a reconstruction and settlement policy was implemented, involving people brought from various parts of the country. In addition to meeting a portion of the city’s increasing food needs (daily vegetables and fruits) due to the growing population, the gardens, which are areas completing the historical and cultural landscape of the city, have maintained their importance until recent years. These gardens were not only located inside the city walls and around the land walls but also along both shores of the Bosphorus and in the stream and river basins of other neighborhoods.

The city -called “Green İstanbul” by traveler visiting it- achieved standout with its architectural structures surrounded by greenery besides bağ, bahçe, boston which all refer to gardens in Turkish. The city maintained those features until the beginning of 20th century. Migration movement connected to industrialization caused mass need of housing as a result market gardens were in the first place to be dispensed with housing need.

Once synonymous with Istanbul, these gardens found a significant place on maps dating back to the first half of the 19th century, as they were both a source of employment and directly contributed to production. However, starting from the first half of the 20th century, when planned urbanization activities began, they were almost entirely neglected.

In implementary development plan for proctection of İstanbul prepared in terms of city’s urban planning, market gardens were in long-standing state of neglect by remained undefined. In subseqent studies, they were considered to meet increasing population’s need of greenery in the meanwhile they served as parks or cultural parks in the landscaping projects which caused market gardens to lose their essential function.

İstanbul used to face water shortage in every age so the city had trouble with watering market gardens. Especially due to fact that there weren’t any streams near the market gardens located inside and outside the Land Walls of İstanbul, gardeners used sewage to water gardens as a result it caused infectious diseases which captured the headlines at that time. Municipality kept watering tight control over market gardens, it forced gardeners to use mains water. Unfortunately that wouldn’t help to solve the problem, Municipality drove market gardens from the city.

At first market gardens suffered from unplanned urbanization due to the absence of planning, then they were underrated in implementary development plans for protection of the city. Moreover several modifications of these plans led to never-ending constructions in every period.

This article aims to examine the contributions of the gardens, which hold a significant place in Istanbul’s cultural and historical past, to the city. Using archival records, historical maps, plans, sketches, and written and visual documents, the historical development process and the evolution of Istanbul within the scope of planning studies are explored.