Süreyya Opera House (Kadıköy)
A 1927 Art Nouveau opera house in the heart of Kadıköy, on the Asian side — a small but beautifully detailed building that's been the cultural anchor of the neighborhood for nearly a century.
Key facts
About
The Süreyya Opera House was commissioned by the Kadıköy philanthropist Süreyya İlmen, designed by the Armenian-Turkish architect Hovsep Aznavurian, and opened in 1927 as one of the first purpose-built opera houses in republican Turkey. The building is a textbook example of Art Nouveau (in Turkish, "Art Nouveau" is called "Art Nouveau" too, or the local variant "Eklektik" for the eclectic phase) — a rusticated stone base, a curved central bay with tall arched windows, a copper dome, and intricate carved detailing on the façade.
For most of its life the Süreyya hosted touring theater and opera companies, local concerts, and graduation ceremonies. The building fell into disuse in the 1990s and was extensively restored in the 2000s; it reopened in 2007 and now operates as a 500-seat venue for opera, ballet, and concerts. Even if you don't catch a show, the façade alone is worth a 5-minute stop — and the surrounding square (Altıyol) is the natural center of any Kadıköy walking tour.
The building sits at the intersection of the main pedestrian streets and is the easiest single landmark to use as a meeting point on the Asian side: "meet me at Süreyya" is a thing.
Photo credit
- sureyya-opera-hero.jpg George M. Groutas (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)