Great fire in the metropolis

Research on fires and their repercussions in Istanbul from 1453 to 1918 shows that in every century almost no part of Istanbul and Galata was spared from devastating fires. ¹ The fire described in Barbaro’s account, published here for the first time, is just one of many fires that consumed large parts of the Ottoman capital. Selaniki Mustafa Efendi documented 17 major fires in Istanbul during the 37 years described in his history (1563–1600). ² In 1757, a fire that began in the quarter of Cibali on the Golden Horn spread in 10 directions and destroyed half the area of Istanbul intra muros, consuming on its way 150 mosques, 130 medreses, 335 mills, 36 bath houses, 34,200 shops, and 77,400 houses. ³ During the second half of the nineteenth century, there were no fewer than 229 fires in Istanbul, which destroyed 36,000 houses. ⁴ Big conflagrations seem, therefore, to be a recurrent phenomenon in metropolitan life, whose impact on the city and its inhabitants must have been considerable.