Feriköy Protestant Cemetery
| Feriköy Protestant Cemetery | |
|---|---|
Main gate of the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1859 |
| Location | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Coordinates | 41°03′14″N 28°59′02″E / 41.053889°N 28.983889°E |
| Type | Protestant Cemetery |
| Style | Nineteenth- and twentieth-century European |
The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery (Turkish: Feriköy Protestan Mezarlığı), officially called Evangelicorum Commune Coemeterium, is an international Christian cemetery in Istanbul, Turkey. As its name indicates, it is the final resting place for Protestants in Istanbul. The cemetery is in the Feriköy neighborhood of Istanbul's Şişli district, roughly 3 km (1.9 mi) north of Taksim Square. It is an official member of the Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe (ASCE).
The cemetery is managed by a governing board composed of the consulates general of Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary and Switzerland, which exchange the presidency on an annual basis. In 2018, the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative formed to help preserve the cemetery as a burial place, historic landmark, and urban green spot, and in 2021 it was recognized by the governing board as its official partner in caring for the site.
In 1857, by order of Sultan Abdülmecid I, the Ottoman government gifted the land for the cemetery to the leading Protestant powers of the time: the United Kingdom, Prussia, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Federated Cities of the Hanseatic League together with the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. Since then, about 5,000 individuals have been interred here. Members of the Reformed Churches, as well as Lutherans and Anglicans, rest in the cemetery. Yet, while most of those buried here identified in life as Protestants, others of different faiths and backgrounds are also interred in the cemetery.
The cemetery contains examples of many different styles of memorial from the seventeenth century to the present. The stones propped up along the east and south walls are some of the last links to Istanbul's former burial ground for Europeans and other Westerners – known as the "Graveyard of the Franks" – in the Grand Champs des Morts, Pera's "Great Field of the Dead," which was lost to urban development during the nineteenth century. The memorials on the east wall, in the so-called "Monument Row," are the most impressive.