Private Fener Greek High School

The red brick castle crowning the hill of Fener rises high above the neighborhood with its massive central dome and tall, arched windows. This is the Phanar Greek Orthodox College, the oldest surviving school for the Greek community in Istanbul. In eighteen eighty-one, architect Periklis Fotiadis designed it to broadcast the prestige of the city’s elite families. He used materials imported directly from France to shape the heavy masonry, creating a building that looks like a fortress guarding the history of the neighborhood.