Fener

Fener ( Phanar or Fanar also, Greek: Φανάριον / Phanarion, Φανάρι / Phanari ) is a neighborhood in the Fatih district of the Turkish city of Istanbul. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453 the upper stratum of the Greek population moved into the quarter- Fener. Since the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Opel moved to this township, also head of the Patriarchate is called the Phanar.

This district was also the famous Greek Fener College, where not only the offspring of the Greek and Bulgarian Phanariots was formed.

In recent years, Fener is mainly for residential become poorer immigrants from Anatolia, and therefore also a center of orthodox Sunni Islam.

Phanariots

( Main article Phanariots )

Under the name Phanariots one understands - especially in the countries of the former Ottoman Empire in the Balkans - a small group of wealthy and politically influential Byzantine noble families in the Ottoman Empire of the 17th/18th. Century, the upper classes in Phanar formed.

Between 1711 and 1821 Phanariots were appointed by the Sultan to Gospodaren Wallachia and Moldavia, took over important posts in the army and government and were partly worked as ambassador in European countries. Some Phanariots had in the 1820s share of the Greek struggle for freedom.