Neither is a capital or even considered being left Europe, but has been designated European Capital of Culture 2010 by the EU itself. Under the guise of understanding the riddle, do not resist the gorgeous big year in this megalopolis.

Although Ankara is real, nobody doubts that the unofficial capital of Turkey is Istanbul: Byzantium ancient Greeks, Persians and Macedonians in Constantinople to resist the Eastern Roman Empire and, until into the twentieth century, the darling of the Ottoman sultans, who spared no time to decorate the fabulous palaces and mosques of this bewitching city channel starting in the Bosporus Strait, bounded by the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara, and then split in bud more monumental by the sparkling water pit dubbed the Golden Horn

With around ten million souls, Istanbul is not only the largest city in Turkey, in addition to the epicenter of political, economic and cultural development. It is also one of the most vital megalopolis, disconcertingly contradictory and beautiful course around the planet. With one foot resting on the other in Europe and Asia, none like her to officiate as a bridge between East and West and promote cultural exchanges at European level, which is the aim that this vibrant city with so many centuries behind him is set for, at least the next twelve months.

A city in love and not need major excuses to go to his respects. Even if you need some, surely find it among the many and good that have been prepared under the slogan Istanbul, a city of four elements. This is the axis on which the programming revolves orchestrated by the flamboyant European Capital of Culture 2010, which was officially launched on 16 January.

To live in style its great year Istanbul has a new concert hall, a new library and a handful of new museums and art centers. And also to keep up has restored many of its monuments, including the walls or scaffolding permanently flooded church, then mosque now museum of Hagia Sophia.

Also been given a facelift to the old kitchens of the Topkapi Palace, home to a superb collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, but will be in the museum grounds where it opens a major exhibition in February around the Persian civilization and another, which runs until August, about the treasures of the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, in the halls of the Archaeological Museum between March and June coincide tribute to the mosaics in the Italian city of Ravenna and exposure The Assyrians in Istanbul, while the City Library will host throughout the year countless EnCuentos and activities around the woman in Istanbul from its role in Byzantium or in the Ottoman Empire until its important transformation in our time.

Among the museums that will put out to coincide with the cultural capital stands dedicated to the expansion of Sinan, the most glorious architect of the Ottoman Empire or, from July, the inauguration of the Museum Island Istanbul on one of the islands of Princes, and the Museum of Innocence that, inspired by the eponymous novel nobel Orhan Pamuk of Turkey, shows the evolution of the daily life of the city from the ’50s to today.

Photography, film, visual arts and video installations by international artists-including a remarkable contribution in the Catalan Antoni Muntadas Kadirga Art Center during the first two months of the year “dot an agenda distributed by the many sites that will host demonstrations from folk to dance and theater festivals such as puppets, to be held in March and May, the poetry, in this last month, or street art as it prepares for September. In nearly all the concerts, with some such as the first rockers U2 will offer Sept. 6 at the Istanbul Ataturk Stadium.