Belgrad Forest

Belgrad Forest (Turkish: Belgrad Ormanı) is a mixed deciduous forest lying adjacent to Istanbul, Turkey. It is named after the village next to the forest, settled by thousands of Serbs who were deported to the capital Constantinople from the city of Belgrade in 1521, when it fell to the Ottomans. Geographically, the forest is located at the easternmost point of the Thracian Peninsula. Forest terrain is divided between Sarıyer and Eyüp districts. Several historical reservoirs lie within the forest.

This forest was one of the important water resources of Constantinople in the period of the Eastern Roman Empire, and after the fall of Constantinople Turks have respected and protected it. The Thracian village of Belgrad (from which the forest takes its name) was named after the thousands of Serbs that Suleiman the Magnificent had deported to Thrace after the 1521 Siege of Belgrade.

With a region around 5,524 hectares of forest it houses many plant, bird and animal species. The most common tree in the forest is sessile oak (Quercus petraea). Belgrad Forest is under protection and is one of the most visited recreational areas of Istanbul. The building of the western section of the motorway running over the 3rd Bosphorus bridge (opened 2016) which runs through the northern part of the forest, the expansion of Istanbul (Maslak etc. ), the settlements which surround the forest, and new roads question the practical effect of the protection.

Instead of finding many Byzantine remains of aqueducts, there are mainly only Ottoman dams remaining, which were all built over a period of 150 years. The Valens Aqueduct that straddles busy Atatürk Bulvarı as it runs uphill from the Golden Horn is the largest of the monuments commemorating the complex system needed to bring the water into the city during the 16th-18th centuries. In the forest there were two separate channeling systems. The older of the two was the Kırkçeşme system that directed water into town Eğrikapı hard against the city walls. Many of the aqueducts and reservoirs that supported this system were originally built in Roman and Byzantine times, but in the 16th century Suleiman the Magnificent commissioned the Ottoman architect Sinan to upgrade it all for the new aqueduct system that would lead into his city. The result was a series of magnificent aqueducts that criss-cross the roads near Kemerburgaz. The Maǧlova Aqueduct is the largest, with its exceptional architecture, strength and structure, and with a little effort is accessible to the public from both ends and can be safely walked through on its lower level. The Kemerburgaz aqueduct can be similarly traversed. The newly restored Uzunkemer still stands right across a busy road in the forest (not traversable). As the population of İstanbul grew, the water supply system also had to be expanded to cope with the increasing numbers of people living in the city, which resulted in a second supply line; the Taksim system. Most of its aqueducts and reservoirs were built in the 18th century well after the reconstruction that took place earlier in the 16th century. The most noticeable monument is the Mahmud I Kemer, erected in 1732, that stands right beside the road in Bahçeköy. The Taksim system ended at the large reservoir in Taksim Square that now acts as a small art gallery used for tourism.

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