Haydarpaşa Train Station

Haydarpaşa Terminal was opened in 1908 as the Ottoman terminus of the Berlin–Baghdad railway. Designed by the German architects Otto Ritter and Helmut Cuno in a heavy German neo-renaissance style, the building has a rusticated stone base, four towers, and a long symmetrical façade running along the Bosphorus. For nearly a century it was the eastern gateway to Istanbul — Orient Express passengers arrived here, the daily Haydarpaşa–Baghdad trains left from here, and the building's massive clock was one of the time references for the Asian side.

In 2010 a fire badly damaged the building's roof. The fire, the long-running Marmaray tunnel project, and political indecision about the station's future have left it in limbo ever since — closed to trains, partially restored, occasionally opened to the public, occasionally threatened with demolition. Walking along the waterfront in front of it now is a strange experience: this is one of Istanbul's most iconic buildings, and you can see the full façade from the public promenade, but you usually can't go inside.

The building is best appreciated from outside, at sunset, when the Bosphorus-side façade glows. Combine with a walk along the Kadıköy waterfront and a coffee at one of the cafés across the road.