Okçu Musa Primary School

Although there is no definitive record of its construction date, the building is believed to have been part of structures developed by the Genoese in the 14th century.
The earliest official documentation dates back to 1850, when the building was used by the English as housing and a school for priests.
By the late 19th century, it was operated as the Sankt Georg Priests’ School under the Austrian Lazarist community.
During the occupation of Istanbul, the building served as a police station and prison under the English, and afterward it was used as an orphanage.
In the early Republican period, it briefly functioned as a Tailoring School and, from the 1940s onward, has been used for educational purposes under various names.

The complex consists of three separate blocks constructed at different times.
Today, the building hosts two separate educational institutions and continues its educational activities together with Galata Girls Anatolian Imam Hatip High School.
Considering that the adjacent Galata Association building was constructed in a contiguous layout and dates back 700 years to the Genoese period, it is possible that part of the school building originates from that era.
The school takes its name from Okçu Musa, the “Chief Archer” of Mehmed the Conqueror. A mosque and a street in the neighborhood also bear the same name.