Dolmabahçe replaced Topkapı as the imperial residence in 1856, and the change of address was also a change of argument: after four centuries of courtyards and pavilions, the sultans moved into a single European palace stretching six hundred metres along the Bosphorus.
The numbers were the point. Two hundred and eighty-five rooms, forty-four halls, and a ceremonial hall with a four-and-a-half-tonne Bohemian crystal chandelier given by Queen Victoria. Fourteen tonnes of gold leaf went into the ceilings.
Atatürk died here on 10 November 1938; the clocks in his room are stopped at 09:05.
Closed Mondays. Visits are guided and timed, so buy online. From The Soul Hotel it is around twenty minutes on foot downhill through Kabataş, or ten by taxi.
Category:
History