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Maçka Park (Maçka Parkı) is a large park in Istanbul, Turkey. It runs down a hill from the Nişantaşı and Maçka neighborhoods to Dolmabahçe.
History
Maçka Park was a densely wooded valley in the middle of the 19th century. It was popular with the Ottomans for picnics, horseback riding, and walking. There was also a stream flowing through it. The valley is 42 meters (138 feet) deep.
From then until 1940, the valley contained the Dolmabahçe Gashouse (Dolmabahçe Gazhanesi) as well as a small casino and vegetable garden. The gashouse was built in the middle of the 19th century and was used for the lighting and heating of Dolmabahçe Palace as well as some surrounding districts. The park was listed as Park No. 2 on plans drafted by French architect Henri Prost (1874-1959).
Development of Maçka Park was delayed until 1966, when Istanbul mayor Haşim İşcan (1898-1968) started preliminary works.
In the 1970s, the park was a dangerous area frequented by criminals and the homeless. It was also very polluted.
Maçka Park was restored and cleaned up in 1993, and Democracy was added to the name. Its official name is Maçka Democracy Park (Maçka Demokrasi Parkı).
Today, it’s a popular place to get away from the crowds or to beat the heat on a summer day. It contains walking and biking trails, two playgrounds, cafés, and artificial ponds. There are four main entrances.
Maçka Art Park
Starting on the northern entrance of the park and working our way downhill is a small section called Maçka Art Park (Maçka Sanat Parkı). It consists of a plaza lined with busts of important figures from the Turkic world, such as Attila, Timur, and Osman I. Of course, a statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the most prominent monument. The inscription for each bust includes the beginning and end date of each empire these leaders created.
The stairs and path leading down through Maçka Art Park run past a tea garden, playground, and benches. It’s a pleasant place to sit, especially on a hot day.
At the bottom of the stairs is a small plaza. It contains a bust of Zübeyde Hanım (1856-1923), the mother of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938). There’s also a monument to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Finally, at the southern end of Maçka Art Park is a collection of four busts. They depict Romanian prince and Age of Enlightenment figure Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), erected in 2003; German Chancellor and 1971 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Willy Brandt (1913-1992), erected in 2007; General Bernardo O’Higgins (1778-1842), the liberator of Chile, erected in 2010; and Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919), erected in 2010.
Arch
Next, crossing a busy roundabout is the entrance to the main part of Maçka Park. Visitors are greeted with an arched entryway opening to a small plaza. From there until the southern end of the park are wide paved paths, grassy areas along the slopes, and benches along the paths. This is the most peaceful part of the ark.
Maçka Gondola
On April 11, 1993, the Maçka Gondola opened to the public. It’s a cable car line that connects two campuses of Istanbul Technical University (İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi), Maçka and Taşkışla. The Maçka station is near the midpoint of the park while the Taşkışla station is a short walk from Taksim Square.
Cars run every five minutes and take about 3 ½ minutes to cross the valley. The line is 333.5 meters (1,094 feet) long. It’s mostly used by university students.
Abdülhamid II Fountain
Next to the Maçka gondola station is the Abdülhamid II Fountain (Sultan II.Abdülhamit Çeşmesi). It was built in 1901 by Italian architect Raimondo D’Aronco (1857-1932) for Sultan Abdülhamid II. The fountain originally sat in front of the Nusretiye Mosque in Tophane.
Bomb Attack
On a somber note, there were twin bomb attacks in front of Vodafone Arena and in Maçka Park on December 10, 2016. 48 people were killed. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, a Kurdish nationalist militant group, took responsibility.
