Fener

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Fener, Fanar or Phanar (Greek Φανάρι [fa'nari]) is a neighborhood midway up the Golden Horn, in Istanbul, Turkey (formerly Constantinople). The streets in the area are full of historic wooden houses, churches, and synagogues dating from Byzantine and Ottoman times.

After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Fener district was home to most of the Greeks who remained in the city. The Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople moved to the area as well, and is still located there. As a result, Phanar is often used as shorthand for the Patriarchate just as Vatican is used for the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Greek inhabitants of the Phanar were called Phanariotes. Wealthy phanariotes were appointed voivodes of Wallachia and Moldavia by the Ottoman Empire between 1711 and 1821.

The name 'Fener' comes from Greek φανάρι lighthouse^[1], as there was a lighthouse in this district in the Byzantine period.