The Green Park TaksimHotel and Area Guide

Taksim Square and Gezi Park: What to Know Before You Walk Over

Taksim Square is the meeting point of modern Istanbul, four minutes on foot from The Green Park Hotel Taksim. Gezi Park sits directly beside it, one of the last sizable green spaces in Beyoglu.

The square works best as your daily orientation point: the M2 metro, the F1 funicular to Kabatas, the T2 nostalgic tram and the city's main bus stops all radiate from it. Gezi Park, up the steps on its north side, is where the neighborhood catches its breath under plane trees.

What Taksim Square is

Taksim Square with flag garlands, the metro entrance and Ataturk Cultural Center in the background
Taksim Square on a clear morningPhoto: Ninara, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

The name comes from the Ottoman stone water-distribution building, the Maksem, which still stands at the head of Istiklal Street; the square grew around the point where the city's water lines divided. At its center stands the Republic Monument, erected in 1928 to commemorate the founding of the Turkish Republic, and today one of the most photographed landmarks in the city according to visit.istanbul, the municipality's official visitor platform.

The square is a transit hub before it is a sight. Plan to pass through it daily rather than linger: mornings are calm, evenings are dense with foot traffic heading into Istiklal Street. Our Istiklal Street guide covers that walk end to end.

Gezi Park in brief

Gezi Park occupies the site of the former Taksim Artillery Barracks, which was later used as a stadium before the area was laid out as a public park in 1940 as part of Henri Prost's replanning of the city. It is a compact rectangle of lawns, plane trees, benches and a playground, raised slightly above the square on its northern edge.

The park carries political weight in modern Turkey: the 2013 protests that began over its planned redevelopment made it known worldwide. For visitors today it is simply the nearest patch of shade, and the practical payoff of booking a hotel near Gezi Park: the lawns are busiest at lunchtime and on warm evenings, calm the rest of the day.

Visiting tips from the hotel

  • The walk from The Green Park Hotel Taksim takes about four minutes: downhill on Abdulhak Hamit Caddesi, then straight to the square.
  • For photographs of the Republic Monument without crowds, come before 09:00; the light favors the monument's east face in the morning.
  • Gezi Park's benches are a good coffee stop; kiosks around the square sell simit and water for a fraction of cafe prices.
  • The square is stepless and flat, one of the few fully stroller-friendly open spaces in hilly Beyoglu, as we detail in the family guide.

Beyond the square

Taksim rewards using it as a hub. The funicular drops to the Bosphorus shore at Kabatas in one stop, where ferries leave for the islands and the strait; see our Kabatas ferry guide for timetables and piers. In the other direction, a single M2 metro stop reaches Osmanbey and the designer streets of Nisantasi. And if Gezi Park only whets your appetite for green, the larger Macka Democracy Park is a ten-minute walk away, covered in our Taksim green spaces guide.