Description
Since its first wooden construction in 1749, the tower has served as a fire watch tower and was used for signaling maritime navigation information to the ships on the Golden Horn. Seven years later, during the Great Fire of Çibali, the Beyazıt Tower was severely damaged and replaced by a second construction on the same location. In 1826, however, this building was completely destroyed during the riots in Sultan Mahmud II’s reign. In the same year, another tower was built of wood, which was designed by the Armenian architect Krikor Amira Balyan. A short time later, however, the new tower was set on fire during the Janissary revolts.
Today’s Beyazıt Tower dates back to 1828. The 85-meter-high tower, made of stone, was built by Senekerim Amira Balyan, the younger brother of Krikor Amira Balyan, in Ottoman style and named after Sultan Beyazıd II. A wooden spiral staircase leads to the top floor of the stone tower into a room of 50 square meters, with many arched windows.
With its current function as a weather tower, it displays weather conditions in different colors. Blue color represents sunny weather, green means rain, yellow fog and red snow.
