Fener is a quarter midway up the Golden Horn within the district of Fatih in Istanbul, Turkey. The streets in the area are full of historic wooden mansions, churches, and synagogues dating from the Byzantine and Ottoman eras. The wooden mansions between the main axis and the shore were often used for importing wood from Pontus or the Black Sea area. Their picturesque facades were largely destroyed due to street widening requirements in the 1930s and later. The area's name is a Turkish transliteration of the original word "fanarion" It was so called for a column topped with a lantern which stood there in the Byzantine period – used as a public light or marine and/or other purpose locator/beacon.
