Taksim Military Barracks, Istanbul, Turkey
Photo legend: A battery of the 1st Artillery Brigade during drill at the Taksim Artillery Barracks (Turkish: Taksim Topçular Kışla-i Hümâyûnu'nda 1.Topçu Tuğayı bataryasi talim sırasında)
Photo: Frères Viçen, Hovsep & Kevork Abdullah
Architect: Krikor Balyan
Construction 1803-1806
The Taksim Military Barracks were located at the site of the present-day Taksim Gezi Park next to Taksim Square in Istanbul. It was built in 1806 in Neo-Ottoman style.
In 1940, the historic barracks were demolished to make way for Gezi Park. Decades later, this very site has become the epicenter of a fierce political and cultural battle.
President Erdoğan’s administration has repeatedly pushed to build a replica of the barracks — potentially to house a shopping mall or hotel — directly contesting the park’s status as a powerful symbol of secular resistance since the 2013 Gezi Park protests.
Critics denounce the project as "neo-Ottoman kitsch" and an erasure of republican history, while the original blueprints remain largely lost, making any reconstruction a modern fabrication rather than a true restoration.
