The Client
Freya Art is a digital heritage and cultural guide focusing on curated art experiences. The pilot initiative was launched in Beyoğlu, Istanbul—a district known for its dense concentration of art galleries, museums, and layered European architectural history.
Beyoğlu is built for exploring on foot, yet no existing tool supported a seamless walking experience.
The Challenge
Map applications provided uncurated pins without context or route logic, while cultural blogs offered static venue lists without walking order or timing.
Visitors were left doing all the curation and route planning by hand, creating a clear gap between discovering art locations and actually navigating them.
The Solution:
Freya Art Route
Freya Art Route was built as a personalized, walkable route engine that connects manually verified venues and landmarks into a natural walking flow.
Rather than relying on unverified map data, the tool combines galleries and museums with nearby historical landmarks and architectural stories, transforming the walk itself into an interactive cultural experience.
Maintained 50 to 100 organic visitors every single day without ad spend.
The tool has also functioned as a powerful growth driver for the broader brand, lifting overall traffic across the Freya Art website. Beyond the steady metrics, the project achieved exceptional user engagement, drawing overwhelmingly positive feedback in visitor comments and earning organic repeat usage from users sharing the tool with others.
The Results
Phase 1: Proof Of Concept
Launched an MVP using a Google Sheets "headless CMS" with Google Apps Script serving JSON data to a lightweight JavaScript frontend on Google Maps.
Transitioned to a production Dockerized FastAPI backend on Google Cloud Run to support auto-scaling during peak traffic, adding domain-restricted API keys, automated billing alerts, and content sanitization.
Implemented a nested metadata schema for rich venue details and created a custom geometric algorithm (corridor-based discovery filter) to surface landmarks within 100 meters of the path, ordered north-to-south along the avenue's flow.
Built an event-tracking pipeline connected to a serverless BigQuery warehouse, resolved path-interpolation edge cases, and introduced a hardcoded bootstrap dataset to ensure an instant first paint.
Testimonials
"I finally found the app I was looking for. It gathers museums and art galleries in Beyoğlu in one place, allowing me to build my own custom route. Discovering the city through art feels so much more enjoyable."
Nilay Koçak"This project is exactly what a culturally and historically rich district like Beyoğlu needed. Cultural activities are now effortless and enjoyable; we eagerly await the same feature for other districts!"
Dilayda Soylu"There is so much to see in such a magnificent area that it can get overwhelming. Thanks to this system, your route never gets off track, and you can explore every single spot you want."
Nergis Ova"In a place like Beyoğlu where art spills into the streets, this route is a massive convenience. Discovering new galleries, museums, and creative spots has become far more structured and inspiring."
Özgür Öğünç"A project that fits Beyoğlu perfectly. I thought I knew Beyoğlu reasonably well, but I realized how much I was walking past without noticing. I hope to see other neighborhoods added soon."
Sezin Gürpınar"As an architect and urban researcher, I value exploring Istanbul's art routes. Freya Art turns the city's layered cultural scene into a practical, refined experience, offering a wonderful guide."
Ayşe Arya Vilgenoğlu"Beyoğlu holds a special place in my life. Freya seamlessly weaves the Istanbul I love encountering along the way right between the exhibitions and museums I want to visit."
Feyza Yüksel"I finally found the app I was looking for. It gathers museums and art galleries in Beyoğlu in one place, allowing me to build my own custom route. Discovering the city through art feels so much more enjoyable."
Nilay Koçak"This project is exactly what a culturally and historically rich district like Beyoğlu needed. Cultural activities are now effortless and enjoyable; we eagerly await the same feature for other districts!"
Dilayda Soylu"There is so much to see in such a magnificent area that it can get overwhelming. Thanks to this system, your route never gets off track, and you can explore every single spot you want."
Nergis Ova"In a place like Beyoğlu where art spills into the streets, this route is a massive convenience. Discovering new galleries, museums, and creative spots has become far more structured and inspiring."
Özgür Öğünç"A project that fits Beyoğlu perfectly. I thought I knew Beyoğlu reasonably well, but I realized how much I was walking past without noticing. I hope to see other neighborhoods added soon."
Sezin Gürpınar"As an architect and urban researcher, I value exploring Istanbul's art routes. Freya Art turns the city's layered cultural scene into a practical, refined experience, offering a wonderful guide."
Ayşe Arya Vilgenoğlu"Beyoğlu holds a special place in my life. Freya seamlessly weaves the Istanbul I love encountering along the way right between the exhibitions and museums I want to visit."
Feyza Yüksel