GALATA. - European suburb to the east of Istanbul.
From the 8th century the term had designated one of the quarters of Constantinople, also so called by the Turks, which the Latins preferred to call "Pera". Europeans and Latins, on the other hand, have given the name of G. from the 18th century to the ancient Genoese city intra muros of the city.
Around 200 the first Christian community at G. is recorded, which by about 431 constituted a small city. Its history, however, begins with the Genoese colonization, sporadic under the Comneni and then stable under the Palaeologi. Michael VIII settled the Genoese there in 1267, and they made G. one of the principal emporia of the East. G. enjoyed many privileges within the Empire. It had its own administration under a podestà appointed directly by Genoa. The colonists erected numerous public buildings, convents (first of the Benedictines, Dominicans and Franciscans, and later of the Jesuits, Conventuals, Capuchins, Salesians and Lazarists), churches (21 of them have been counted) and hospitals. In their conquest (1455) the Turks confirmed the privileges of G., which they later abolished, however, leaving only to the new body called the Magnifica Comunità the management of religious property. Despite Eastern infiltrations, G. still preserved, late in the 18th century, a purely Italian appearance.
From the 19th century G. takes on the appearance it has today of a cosmopolitan city with a clear predominance of the European element. The abolition of the "capitulations" (1914) suppressed every trace of the ancient privileges and subjected the population to Turkish legislation. Religious institutions and parishes for Italians still function.
Bibliography5 works
Vitaliano Laurent