Changes After Construction
The school, whose foundation was laid in 1845, was built in 1846 by the famous Swiss architect Gaspare Fossati upon the commission of Monsignor Hillerau, the Vatican representative of the period.
It was built as a boarding girls’ high school together with the adjacent Saint Esprit Cathedral.
After the First World War, following the departure of the French nuns from the country, it was first used as an engineering school and later as a hospital.
With the establishment of the Republic, the structure was transferred to the Turkish Ministry of National Education and continues to be used for educational purposes today.
The structure underwent restoration and renovation processes in 2006, its 150th year, and later in 2010.
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The school, which initially provided education to non-Muslim students, all of whom were boarders, began admitting Muslim students in 1863 with the interest of Sultan Abdülaziz.
Notre Dame de Sion French High School, the first girls’ high school opened in our country, was founded by “Filles de la Charité” (Daughters of Charity), a female religious congregation.
Afet İnan, Sabiha Gökçen, and Ülkü Adatepe, Atatürk’s best-known adopted daughters, studied at this school.
It is one of the most important examples of Istanbul’s 19th-century architectural heritage.
The name of Notre Dame de Sion School comes from the combination of the French words “Notre Dame,” meaning “Virgin Mary,” and “Sion,” referring to the name of Jerusalem in the Old Testament.
