KarDes: Multicultural Memory Tours Guide mobile application has added a new tour from Üsküdar to its Istanbul content. The Bağlarbaşı memory tour, shaped by the workshops with the students from Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School, allows you to explore the multicultural history of the region. This tour has been the 24th memory tour featured in the KarDes app.
The Bağlarbaşı tour includes narratives about the Armenian and Greek communities that lived in the neighborhood, stories of people and many structures in the district. Discover the Berberian School, Semerciyan Cemaran School, Üsküdar American Academy as well as Surp Garabed Church, Çinili Mosque and Hammam, Bağlarbaşı Tram Depot and the stories of local residents such as Zabel Yesayan, Vahram Torkomian and more with the Bağlarbaşı Tour.
The Turkish texts for the 15-stop tour were voiced by Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School students Sesil Gündüz, Aras Özkaya, and Daniel Sıvacıoğlu. The English translation was done by Ayla Jean Yackley and the English voiceover will be available soon.
In addition to the memory tour, an inventory of Üsküdar’s cultural heritage, including mosques, churches, synagogues, schools and cemeteries, is available on the Discover page of the app.
We would like to thank the students and teachers of Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School who contributed to the preparation and shaping of the tour, as well as everyone who voluntarily supported the content.
A launch event was held for the Bağlarbaşı tour
The Bağlarbaşı memory tour was introduced at a launching event held on Wednesday, October 2nd at the Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School auditorium in Üsküdar. After the opening speech of the school principal Serkan Kıyıcı, the KarDes team, Damla Barın, İpek Mayıs Oğuz, and Lorin Kurtlukaya presented the KarDes mobile application and the new content on Bağlarbaşı. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion on the history of Üsküdar with the author Sevengül Sönmez, academic Mehmet Fatih Uslu, and architect and writer Zakarya Mildanoğlu. In the following days, the students of Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School and the KarDes team walked and discovered the Bağlarbaşı Tour route together.
What is KarDes?
KarDes is a mobile application designed as a personal tour guide in Turkish and English languages for users who wish to discover the multicultural legacy and multilayered fabric of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
KarDes, which aims to make visible unknown sites in well-known neighborhoods and allows their stories to be told, offers over 30 memory tours, each lasting an average of two hours and reveals the multicultural pasts of various areas. Users can access the alternative history narratives of cities with neighborhood tours and thematic tours consisting of selected stops on specific topics. With this application, KarDes users can discover a cultural inventory consisting of close to one thousand sites such as mosques, churches, synagogues, schools, and cemeteries. As they walk along routes that make this multicultural legacy visible, they can hear hidden stories of the cities, told by well-known artists.
Aiming to make visible the urban and social memory which has been on the verge of extinction, KarDes offers excerpts from neighborhood talks and oral history interviews, providing the opportunity for users to listen to the stories of these neighborhoods and their transformations from the voices of residents. With around 70 oral history interviews, KarDes presents the stories of sites in various neighborhoods through a dynamic narrative.
Click to download KarDes: Multicultural Memory tours Guide mobile application for free.
