After a long week of snowfall in Istanbul, the city finally fell quiet. The usual noise seemed to fade under a thick layer of white, and the streets felt slower, calmer. When the skies cleared, I headed to the snow-covered Belgrade Forest, one of the few places in Istanbul where nature still feels vast and untouched. The snow had transformed it completely: every branch carried its own little crown of white, every path was soft and silent, and the air smelled incredibly clean.
The Belgrade Forest (also known as the Belgrad Forest) is beautiful in every season, but in winter it turns into something else entirely. The forest absorbs sound; footsteps are muffled, birds move quietly, and the trees disappear into the pale distance as though the whole landscape has been drawn with charcoal and frost. Standing there, you almost forget you are still within the borders of a metropolis of 16 million people.
As I walked deeper through the snow, I arrived at Topuzlu Dam (Topuzlu Bendi), one of the historical waterworks built to supply Istanbul with freshwater. Seeing the centuries-old stone aqueducts dusted with snow made the forest feel even older, as though I were stepping through time rather than just following a walking path.
The name: “Belgrade Forest“
Why is there a forest named “Belgrade” in Istanbul? According to common belief, the forest was named after a Serbian village that was forcibly relocated to the forest to manage the city’s water supply system during Ottoman times.
The people of the village were captives from Suleiman’s (the Magnificent, 6 November 1494 – 6 September 1566) Serbian campaign. Apparently, they were known for being good at that sort of thing, and the sultan decided he’d prefer to have no one but the best looking after his aqueducts and dams.
But I take the second part of this story with a pinch of salt. Because there was no Serbian campaign during the reign of Suleiman. Serbia was already an Ottoman land at that time. Maybe those Serbs were just paid workers (or maybe they were forced labor), not prisoners of war.
Anyway, whoever those Serbs were, they lived in the most beautiful area in Istanbul. The forest is always stunning, and it offers different beauties to the eyes every season of the year, every day of the week, and every hour of the day. But I prefer it in the winter. In the spring and summer months – yes, the forest is still really beautiful, but there’ll be a huge crowd of picnickers and barbeque makers (and I mean HUGE), especially on the weekends.
Today, more than 71 types of birds and 18 types of mammals live in this forest, including wild boars, deer, foxes, and jackals (I saw many of these mammals with my own eyes). Some say even wolves live in the forest, and there’s an aqueduct named after wolves – Kurtkemeri (wolves’ duct). But, to be honest, I have never seen a wolf in the forest. Maybe it’s a thing of the past.
How to go to Belgrade Forest?
The forest is in the Sarıyer district; accessible by buses to Bahçeköy (153 from Sariyer, 42T from Taksim, 42HM from the Hacıosman metro station (the last station) of the subway.
The forest also contains Atatürk Arboretum and the ruins of Belgrad village, an 18th-century summer getaway for the Istanbul ex-pat crowd.
It’s free for pedestrians and cyclists to enter the Belgrade forest.
I also took videos (they are a bit shaky, though).
Related: Belgrade Forest under snow
Read more
- Belgrad Forest (Belgrade Forest) on Wikipedia
