Fener

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Fener is a neighborhood midway up the Golden Horn within the district of Fatih in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey. The streets in the area are full of historic wooden houses, churches, and synagogues dating from Byzantine and Ottoman eras. The area's name is a Turkish transliteration of the original Greek φανάρι (Classical: phanári, modern: fanári, "lantern").[1] It was so called for a column topped with a lantern which stood here in the Byzantine period.

After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Fener district was home to most of the Greeks who remained in the city. The Patriarch of Constantinople moved to the area as well and is still located there. As a result, "Phanar" (the traditional spelling) is often used as shorthand for the Ecumenical Patriarchate just as "Vatican" is used for the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Greek inhabitants of Fener were called "Phanariotes". Wealthy Phanariotes were appointed as governors over provinces in Turkish Europe, particularly as voivodes of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1711 and 1821.

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Coordinates: 41°01′44″N 28°57′07″E / 41.02889°N 28.95194°E / 41.02889; 28.95194

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