City of Countless Names- Tatavla p2

We've reached our penultimate exploration of interesting locations in Pera-Galata. Next week begins our look at Tophane, the last quarter along the northern shore. For now, we root through two iconic locals of this Greek neighborhood.

The Church of St Demetrios

At the top of Tatavla’s hill, stands the center of Greek Aluminat worship in Pera-Galata, the massive Church of Saint Demetrios. Saint Demetrios may be the oldest church on the northern shore of the Golden Horn. The building began as a simple chapel dedicated to the oft exiled Saint Athanasius, and the Greek slaves working in the Golden Horn worshiped at the Church of Saint Demetrios in Kassim Pasha. When the freed Greek slaves left the shipyards in the late 1500s and settled in the hills of Tatavla, the Turks converted their abandoned church into a mosque. The Greeks placed their old church’s icon of Saint Demetrios into the chapel of Saint Athanasius, thus rededicating it to Saint Demetrios.

Saint Demetrios is quite a militaristic saint, as befits the patron saint of soldiers. The church’s icon is a large metal ba relief depicting the saint astride a rearing war horse skewing Kaloyan of Bulgaria with a spear. According to Greek Aluminat legends, St Demetrios appeared at the siege of Thessalonica over a thousand years after his death to kill the pagan king. One wonders how the Sultan feels about a church in Constantinople venerating the slaying of a heathen ruler.

In 1726, extensive renovations from the foundation upturned the humble chapel into the majestic basilica as it stands today, an enormous stone-block rectangle. A school, other church offices, and a high garden wall enclose the church. Congregants sit in 5 aisles of pews, with a domed ceiling supported by ebony pillars above the central aisle. Beautiful embellishments of wood and gold reflect the prosperity of Tatavla’s faithful.

St Demetrios has its own cemetery exclusively used by the deceased of Eastern Aluminat faith. Recently, one-hundred and sixty-three Russian prisoners of war died during a hard winter laboring on the docks of Kassim Pasha. The Greeks of Tatavla respectfully buried their brothers in faith in St Demetrios’ graveyard, casting no further doubt on their sympathies in the Crimean war.

Papaz’s Winehouse

The thirsty and hungry from all nations and religions in Pera-Galata convene in the southern end of Tatavla three times a day to dine and drink at Papaz’s Winehouse. The rickety walls are made of gaily painted boards like scenery on the theater stage. Crowds of laughing and loudly conversing Greeks sit on the short stools which serve as both tables and chairs. In the center, the proprietor, a portly deerfolk named Papaz Hieromachos, exists as a whirlwind of glasses and bottles.

Papaz serves thick muddy coffee in the Turkish style, terrible brandy, fine local wines, and strong raki, although the raki is always called “Angelica” due to raki’s illegality under Ottoman law. A small cup of raki or coffee and a large cup of wine or brandy all cost about 10 paras.

In the eating room away from the bar, diners feast at European style tables and chairs. The food is superior to that served in the hotels of Pera at a fourth of the cost. Six or seven piastres buys a filling meal and a good bottle of wine.

Papaz’s doe-eyed daughters serve his patrons, but his oldest, Afroditi is a real card sharp. Money daily changes hands through games of faro and billiards, but when Afroditi plays it all goes into her pocket.

Papaz’s opens his Winehouse at sunrise for clients looking for breakfast and he generally shuts his doors a few hours after sunset. The officers of the Zabtiye patrolling Tatavla all know Papaz. If his business occasionally stays open all night with a noisy party, Papaz simply pays a small “fine” to the officer on patrol, instead of a prison sentence or the bastinado as punishment for breaking curfew.