Updated · November 2026
The market moved in April 2022. Its new location, hours and the börek shop around the corner are below.
Among Istanbul’s markets, the Kastamonu Market in Kasımpaşa is in a league of its own. These days it goes mostly by the name Historic İnebolu Market. It’s where natural, local produce is easy to find, and a regular stop for chefs from some of the city’s best restaurants.
Where and when
Since April 2022 the market has been held in the backstreets of the Camiikebir neighbourhood, on Kasımpaşa Medresesi Sokak and Külhan Sokak. Its old site was cleared to make way for a new public park, the Millet Bahçesi. Open in Google Maps →
- Day: Sunday. Stallholders start setting up on Saturday night.
- Time: Go early, around 6 a.m. There’s still produce later in the day, but the best of it is much easier to pick early on.
- Getting there: The streets are narrow and parking is close to impossible. A taxi or public transport is the easier option.
The market has shrunk to fit its new home, but some vendors have been coming here for more than thirty years.
What to buy
Mushrooms, wild greens, the jams and marmalades at the entrance: plenty of things you won’t easily find in a supermarket. In season, look out for village tomatoes, blackberries, whole sunflower heads and country bread.
When the rains come, the mushroom stalls come alive. If mushrooms are your thing, follow @mushroomsofturkey, where I’ve shared our #jilberilemantar forays, and read about my latest hunt with Jilber Barutçiyan in the forests of Şile, at Casa Lavanda.
The photos are from the Istanbul leg of our #foodconnectshearts event with @the.hungry.tourist, one of my closest friends when it comes to food and travel, and from later visits.
After the market: Tarihi Kasımpaşa Börekçisi
About 100 metres from the market, on Kasımpaşa Cami Sokak, a small shop has been baking börek since 1947. Tarihi Kasımpaşa Börekçisi bills itself as the oldest Kurdish börek bakery still operating in Istanbul, and the pastries still bake over a wood fire. It opens at 4:30 a.m., which makes it the ideal first stop for early market-goers.
My order never changes: first the classic, plain börek dusted with powdered sugar, then the one with minced meat.
The archive documents the shop shares on Instagram are almost as good as the börek. A court notice in the 3 February 1945 issue of the newspaper Cumhuriyet shows that the founder, Kâmil Ağırgün, was selling börek on the streets of Kasımpaşa at the time. He was prosecuted not for the börek itself but under a production ban imposed because of flour shortages during the Second World War. The verdict came on 19 October 1944; the ban was lifted just six days later. (Source: @tarihikasimpasa) Open in Google Maps →
Sources (in Turkish): Beyoğlu Municipality, notice of 1 April 2022 · İnebolu Postası, 21 September 2024 · Kültür Envanteri · @tarihikasimpasa
