Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative

The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative aims to preserve, document, and study Istanbul’s main Protestant cemetery as an important local historic landmark.

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 Türkiye-based research centers share the common goal of conserving, recording, and researching the site.

The Initiative maintains a website, where a digital guide to the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery, and the Initiative’s regular research update, The Ledger, are available for download.

The BIAA is also supporting a project to undertake a plant survey and ecological report of the cemetery. The project will produce a full survey of trees, shrubs and plants present at the historic Feriköy Protestant cemetery in Istanbul. Carried out by a team of experts, the survey will provide a valuable resource for understanding the value of the site to the biodiversity of a rapidly urbanising Istanbul and allow for greater insight into the history of planting and horticulture at the cemetery. Research will be publicly disseminated via the BIAA’s digital repository and through an academic journal article. The project forms part of a larger conservation plan focused on documentation of historical records and the conservation of built heritage.

Research project website

Fokke Gerritsen
Director, Netherlands Institute in Turkey

Gábor Fodor
Director, Macar Kültür Merkezi İstanbul

Olof Heilo
Director, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul

Brian Johnson
Librarian, ARIT Istanbul

Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal
Assistant Director, BIAA

Zeynep Simavi
Director, ARIT Istanbul

Richard Wittmann
Acting Director, Orient-Institut Istanbul