The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative aims to preserve Istanbul’s main Protestant cemetery as a burial ground, historic landmark, and urban green space. It was founded in 2018 by scholars affiliated with the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT); the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT); and the Orient-Institut Istanbul, and joined in 2019 by the Hungarian Cultural Center, the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII), and the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). These six Turkey-based research centers share the common goal of researching and conserving the site.
The Initiative is a recognized member of the Association of Gravestone Studies (AGS), an international organization founded in 1977 to further the study and preservation of historic grave markers and cemeteries. In September 2022, through the Initiative’s efforts, the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery also joined the Association of Significant Cemeteries of Europe (ASCE). With more than 150 associated cemeteries across the continent, ASCE is Europe’s foremost professional organization for cemetery promotion and care, and membership provides vital support for the Initiative’s efforts to preserve the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery. The cemetery has a dedicated page on ASCE’s website. In 2023, the Initiative became a member of the Church Monuments Society, in the United Kingdom, which encourages the appreciation, study, and conservation of tombs and funerary art not only in the UK but also internationally. The Initiative’s efforts to preserve and document the cemetery focus largely on establishing ties with professional organizations both in Turkey and abroad and on raising public awareness about the site through local and international channels.
Testament to Protestant life in Istanbul
Prior to the establishment of a community cemetery at Feriköy in 1859, Protestant dead in Istanbul were usually buried in the Frankish (European) section of the Grand Champs des Morts or “Great Field of the Dead,” one of the city’s largest cemeteries, located in Pera (today’s Beyoğlu). Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, the area north of Taksim witnessed rapid urban growth, and the Frankish graveyard lay directly in the path of expansion.
Land for a new burial ground at Feriköy was presented in 1857 as a gift of Sultan Abdülmecit I (1839–61) to the embassies of the leading Protestant powers of the time: Great Britain, Prussia, The United States of America, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Hanseatic Cities. Distant from the city’s settled areas, this site was ideal for a cemetery. Since the burial ground’s opening in 1859, approximately 5,000 individuals of all nationalities and backgrounds have been interred there. Almost detached in time and space from the modern metropolis outside its walls, the cemetery stands as a monument to Istanbul’s communal richness and diversity.
Cemetery administration
Management of the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery is entrusted to a governing board comprised of the representatives of the consuls general of Germany, the United Kingdom, the USA, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, and Switzerland, who share the presidency of the board on a yearly rotating basis. The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative has served since 2021 as the board’s official advisory group, the first such body in the cemetery's history. The Initiative seeks to coordinate and boost the efforts of its member institutions, as well as to provide counsel to other institutions and individuals interested in the preservation and study of Istanbul’s historic Protestant burial ground.
The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery was established in 1859 through the diplomatic efforts of several countries, and at its opening, it was noted that the site would be a permanent memorial to the unity of nations. The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative formed in the same spirit of international cooperation in 2018 to help preserve the cemetery in all its aspects: as a burial place, historic landmark, and urban green spot.
Since its founding, the Initiative has mapped and recorded the cemetery; studied its ecology; started to renovate its built heritage; digitized its archive; and created rules and procedures to improve its operation and to protect its function and its legacy. The Initiative has promoted the cemetery publicly, through its website and publications, at conferences and lectures, and at cemetery events and celebrations. It has also established connections with professional organizations in Europe and North America dedicated to cemetery management and conservation. Because of these efforts, the cemetery’s governing board recognized the Initiative as its partner in caring for the site in 2021.
Besides research and study, and preserving history and heritage, the Initiative is also involved with routine tasks at the cemetery. Indeed, conserving the site as a historic landmark demands involvement not only in research but also in operations, and Initiative members help arrange plot sales and burials, monitor monument construction, and guide the custodian.
The Initiative’s academic connections are a special asset in addressing the cemetery’s needs. Two of the Initiative’s most important accomplishments—recording the cemetery and digitizing its archive—were fulfilled entirely because of its academic ties. Close to forty student interns affiliated with the Initiative’s member institutes were trained and employed over several years to help complete these two projects. The data now available because of their labor is an essential tool for handling many of the cemetery’s administrative tasks.
The Initiative’s professionalism and dedication guarantees a level of knowledge and continuity that is essential for the cemetery’s long-term preservation. With its academic expertise, experience, and record of achievement, the Initiative looks forward to continuing its commitment to conserving the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery well into the future.
A note on our logo
The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative’s logo reproduces the design of the rose window on the facade of the cemetery’s chapel, composed of trefoils and circles. These distinctive motifs evoke both religious and universal concepts, highlighting the cemetery’s dual spiritual and secular dimensions and underscoring its function as an international burial ground not only for “Protestants” but also for foreigners of different backgrounds and persuasions, including agnostics and atheists. Besides representing the Christian Trinity, the trefoil is a common symbol of perpetuity, with the three lobes signifying past, present, and future. An emblem for God, the circle also invokes general notions of timelessness, infinity, and the endless cycle of life. For some, the three circles in the cusps of the largest (outer) trefoil—with winglike tracery on either side—might resemble cherubim, or souls reborn in heaven; for others, the same spheres simply appear as harmonious patterns in an aesthetically pleasing design. This inclusive, multilayered imagery embodies the Initiative’s aim of safeguarding the historic role and heritage of the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery, in all its diversity and meaning.
Zeynep Simavi & Brian Johnson
Fokke Gerritsen
Richard Wittmann
Áron Sipos & Gergő Kovács
Olof Heilo
Peter Cherry