Our Foundation has donated to the “Private Fener Greek Secondary School and High School“, which was established in 1454 in the Fener quarter of Istanbul with the edict of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror and has been providing education for more than 500 years.

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Regarding the donation, Uğur Tatlıcı, Executive Board Member of our Foundation, said: “The “Private Fener Greek Secondary School and High School”, which was established with the Sultan’s edict to enable the Orthodox in Istanbul to receive education in their own language, and which has educated many Fenerian Greeks, Chief Translators, Lords of Wallachia and Bogdan, Patriarchs and High Religious Officials who served in high positions in the Ottoman Empire, has an indispensable place in our mosaic of history and culture.  We are delighted to support the Private Fener Greek Secondary School and High School, which is not only a school but also a symbol of tolerance and coexistence, bringing different cultures together.”

Private Fener Secondary School and High School

Fener Greek Secondary School and High School is one of the oldest and most magnificent schools in history, founded in 1454 in the Fener quarter of Istanbul. The school was also known as “Patriarchate Academy”, “Red School” or “First Academy”, “Great School”.

Providing education for more than 500 years, the school continued its activities under different names before the conquest of Istanbul and took its current name inspired by the Fener quarter where it is located. After the conquest of Istanbul, the ruling class and merchants of Byzantium left the city and took refuge in the Aegean islands, Italy and France. When Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror recalled all the Orthodox of Constantinople to the city in 1454, he declared that the Orthodox would be able to study in their own language, reinstate their Patriarchate and worship freely as before. Upon this, the Greeks who had left Istanbul returned to the city in groups.

The magnificent building that has survived to the present day was built between 1880-1882 by the architect Dimadis. Architect Konstantinos Dimadis, one of the most important architects of the nineteenth century and a graduate of the Fener Greek Boys’ High School, brought most of the building materials from Marseille. Dimadis, who also built castles in various European countries, especially in Italy and Spain, completed the work in a short period of two years.

The present building of the school, which was constructed on the Fener ridges on the fifth hill of Istanbul, is one of the most magnificent buildings on the Golden Horn with its wide and high facade, red fire bricks and the flamboyant domed tower in the centre.

In 1903, a department of Classical Philology and Pedagogy was added to the school to train primary school teachers. After the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey, the school was renamed Fener Greek Boys’ High School. In 1989, the school accepted students from the adjacent Ioakeimeion Girls’ High School and has been operating as “Private Fener Greek Secondary School and High School” with co-education since then.