Island Istanbul, Türkiye
Cats in Büyükada
The biggest of the Princes’ Islands, an hour and a half by ferry from the city, with no cars, wooden mansions, pine woods, a monastery on the hill and cats that have never learned to cross a road.
Where to find cats in Büyükada: Büyükada, the largest of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, off the Asian shore of Istanbul. When: A weekday in spring or autumn. Summer weekends are the whole city on one boat. Why here: Seven thousand residents, no cars, a monastery at the top, and cats who have the run of a whole island of gardens.
The short version
- Where
- Büyükada, the largest of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, off the Asian shore of Istanbul
- When
- A weekday in spring or autumn. Summer weekends are the whole city on one boat
- How long
- A full day, from the morning ferry to the evening one. The island rewards a slow loop
- What it costs
- The ferry, a couple of dollars each way on an Istanbulkart. The island is free. The electric bus round it is not much
- Why here
- Seven thousand residents, no cars, a monastery at the top, and cats who have the run of a whole island of gardens
What to bring
- An IstanbulkartFor the ferry from Kabataş or Bostancı and the electric buses on the island. Top it up before you sail.
- The ferry timetable, both waysThe last boats back fill up and the crossing is ninety minutes. Miss it and the island has hotels, which is not the worst outcome.
- Shoes for a hillThe monastery of Aya Yorgi is at the top of the island and the last stretch is steep and on foot.
- Dry food, a littleThe residents feed the cats and put out winter shelters. Top up, do not start a new station.
Why there are cats everywhere
There are no cars on Büyükada, and the cats have never had to learn what one is.
The Princes’ Islands were where Byzantine emperors sent the relatives they wanted out of the way, and later where Istanbul’s Greek, Armenian and Jewish families built summer houses. Büyükada, the big island, is the grandest: wooden mansions with gardens, pine woods, a Greek Orthodox monastery on the higher of its two hills, and for a century, no motor traffic. Horse carriages did the work until 2020, when they were retired and replaced by small electric buses, which is the only thing on the island that goes faster than a bicycle.
That makes it a good island for cats. Seven thousand people live here year round and, in the Istanbul way, they feed the cats, water them, and build them shelters for the winter. The visitors add to it. The result is a population of island cats that are, by the reckoning of everyone who writes about them, different from the city ones: more curious, more sociable, quicker to walk up to a stranger, and with no reason at all to be careful.
The honest note is that an island population is a closed one, and in recent years volunteers have fought outbreaks of disease among the cats here. The residents’ groups and the municipality treat them, and if you see a cat that looks ill, the thing to do is tell someone at the pier, not carry it onto the boat.
Take the morning ferry, walk up through the mansions, climb to the monastery for the view over the whole Marmara, and come down through the pines to a fish lunch by the water. The cats will be at all four.
The walk
Off the ferry into the square, up through the mansion streets to the foot of the hill, the climb to Aya Yorgi, and down through the pines. A day, in a loop, with the electric bus for the far side if the legs give out.
- From KabataşŞehir Hatları ferry to Büyükada90 minThe classic route, calling at the smaller islands on the way. Sit outside, on the left, for the city receding.
- From Bostancı, on the Asian sideFerry or fast boat to Büyükada35 minShorter and more frequent. The way locals go.
- From Eminönü or KadıköyFerry, with a change or a direct sailing depending on the season80 minCheck the Şehir Hatları timetable that morning. Routes change with the season.
The pier and the clock tower
Off the ferry into the small square with the clock tower and the cafes. The cats are on the cafe chairs and the square benches from the first boat. Buy the simit; share it with nobody.
By the pier. Fed by the cafes, watered by the square.Hamdigumus, CC0 The mansion streets
Up Çankaya Caddesi through the wooden houses and their gardens. Cats on every garden wall and gatepost, in a neighbourhood with no traffic to hurry them.
The mansions. Wooden, painted, and every wall has a cat on it.Jwslubbock, CC BY-SA 4.0 Aya Yorgi
The steep path up the higher hill to the Greek monastery of St George, and the view over every island and the whole Marmara. Cats at the top, around the cafe. On St George’s day in April, the whole city climbs it with you.
On the hill. The monastery cats have the best view in Istanbul.Maurice Flesier, CC BY-SA 4.0 The pines and the far side
Down the other side through the pine woods to the quieter western shore and the beaches. The electric bus loops the island if you want to skip the walk back.
In the pines. The island cats do not hurry, because nothing has ever made them.Maurice Flesier, CC BY-SA 4.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Island cats: the ordinary Istanbul mix of tabbies, gingers, tortoiseshells and white-and-tabby, but raised without traffic, and it shows. They walk up to you. They sit on your bench. They follow you up the hill for a while and then think better of it.
Square cats
Well fed, on cafe chairs by the pier.
The greeting committee. They know the ferry times.
Garden cats
On the walls of the wooden mansions.
Somebody’s, in the Istanbul sense. The gardens are the shelter in winter.
Monastery cats
Leaner, at the top of the hill.
Fed by the cafe at Aya Yorgi and by pilgrims. They earn it.
Everybody says Büyükada is a cat sanctuary.
Actually It is a town of seven thousand people on an island, with cats fed the way all Istanbul feeds them, plus the advantage of no cars. It is not a sanctuary and the population has had health problems that volunteers are still managing. It is a good island with good cats on it; it is not a rescue.
How not to be the annoying one
- Same as the rest of Istanbul: they are looked after, not abandoned. Dry food in a quiet corner, no milk, let them come.
- The residents put out winter shelters. Do not move them, sit on them, or photograph inside them with a flash.
- If a cat looks ill, tell someone at the pier or a cafe. The volunteers here have dealt with outbreaks and they act fast. Do not carry it onto the ferry.
- The electric buses are quiet and the cats do not always hear them. Neither will you. Look.
- On St George’s day in April the hill is a pilgrimage. Go another day for the cats.
