Istanbul has re-opened the taps on the rococo Fountain of Sultan Ahmed III, in front of the Imperial Gate of Topkapı Palace.
Photographer: R. Hackenberg/The Image Bank
Istanbul Turns Taps on Old Fountains, Joining Global Push for Free Drinks
For the Ottomans, providing drinking water was a philanthropic duty. These days, free public fountains are getting a push from health advocates, environmentalists and city planners.
Istanbul’s overseers have long taken pride in providing for the thirsty, as witnessed by the hundreds of Ottoman-era public drinking fountains that dot the city. Some are elaborate shrines to drinking water, with ornately carved facades and broad eaves to shade pedestrians. Other fountains are simple rectangles set into walls, with a spigot and a basin.
Most of them, however, are dry after decades of disrepair — cracked or filled with trash, their stone or marble marred with graffiti, their taps sometimes missing. Some are barely visible behind parked cars or piled-up construction material.