The incredible European train station named world's 'most beautiful' surrounded by water
The stunning building sits on 1100 timber piles driven into the bedrock of a bay that encircles the station on three sides.
A stunning train station dubbed one of the world's 'most beautiful' sits in a unique location surrounded on three sides by a bay in the Bosphorus.
Haydarpaşa railway station, in Istanbul, Turkey, looks like an inviting Victorian hotel and was completed in 1909 by German architects Otto Ritter and Helmut Conu on the birthday of Sultan Mehmed V.
At present the station is closed but it has hosted a series of cultural events including tango dance evenings, and it remains a stunning place to visit or see from a passing tour boat.
According to Daily Sabah, the station is due to reopen again after more than a decade of renovation following a serious fire that destroyed much of the roof.
Train fans and tourists alike will likely be salivating at the prospect of using the station once more which links into the local network and will send carriages to the central Sirkeci station.
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Travellers will hopefully be able to enjoy the cavernous barrel-vault ceilings and ornate windows which make the terminal seem more like a palace than a station.
According to Hürriyet Daily News, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu told a recent press conference: "We are meticulously restoring the external façade, engaging in conservation efforts that include artistic cleaning to safeguard the integrity of the structure.
"For the restoration of the station building, we are employing a unique technique using Lefke stone, a type of sandstone specifically sourced from a quarry established for this project."
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Haydarpaşa was built during a golden age of steam travel and was part of an ambitious plan between the Turkish Ottoman Empire and the Germans to create a rail network from Berlin to Baghdad, the latter of which was then part of Ottoman-controlled Iraq.
Being so close to the Bosphorus, the station was also heavily used for transporting freight from shipping onto the land-based leg of its journey.
During World War I, Haydarpaşa briefly fell under the control of British forces when Istanbul was taken over by the Allies during the war with Germany and Turkey.
Going even further back in history, archaeological works at the station uncovered 12,000 coins dating from 500BC up to the 7th century AD. Alongside the coins were statues and ceramic and glass artefacts, many related to the Byzantine Empire.
