The Phanar Greek Orthodox College (known in Greek as “Great School of the Nation”) is an emblematic foundation of Constantinople with almost uninterrupted presence since 1454 and today is a high school for Orthodox students of Turkey. During the second half of 19th century the growth of the local Greek upper class led to a growth of educational institutions as well. As a result, the school was housed in 1883 in a new spacious building. Physics teaching was a priority for the local community and therefore the school possessed a well-equipped physics laboratory and a small observatory. Today the school operates with a small number of students, and the scientific instruments purchased until the seventies are not used anymore. Still they are very important not only scientifically but as signs of growth and prosperity of that era. Unfortunately, a great number of them are not in good condition and they need repair and restoration. Among the more than 130 scientific instruments of the school the most prominent are:
1. The refractor of the observatory
2. A quite complicated orrery
3. Coulomb's Torsion Balance Electrometer
4. Weinhold’s apparatus for Foucault’s experiment
5. Apparatus to show conservation of the plane of oscillation
6. Electromedical induction apparatus
7. Apparatus for showing the resultant of two directional forces
8. Melloni's apparatus
9. Helmholtz double siren
10. Helmholtz resonators
11. Carré induction machine