Dolmabahçe Palace facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dolmabahçe Palace |
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Dolmabahçe Sarayı
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A view of Dolmabahçe Palace from the Bosporus (Strait of Istanbul)
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| General information | |
| Type | Palace (1856–1984) |
| Architectural style | Baroque Revival and Rococo Revival |
| Location | Istanbul, Turkey |
| Coordinates | 41°02′22″N 29°00′06″E / 41.03944°N 29.00167°E |
| Construction started | 1843 |
| Completed | 1856 |
| Client | Ottoman sultans |
| Owner | Government of Turkey |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Garabet Balyan |
Dolmabahçe Palace (Turkish: Dolmabahçe Sarayı) is a grand palace in Istanbul, Turkey. It sits right on the European side of the Bosporus strait. For many years, from 1856 to 1887 and again from 1909 to 1922, it was the main place where the Ottoman Empire was run.
Contents
History
Sultan Abdülmecid I, who was the 31st ruler of the Ottoman Empire, ordered Dolmabahçe Palace to be built. Construction started in 1843 and finished in 1856. Before this, the Sultan and his family lived in Topkapı Palace. But Topkapı was an old, medieval palace and didn't feel as modern or luxurious as the palaces in Europe. So, Sultan Abdülmecid decided to build a brand new, modern palace.
The main architects were Garabet Balyan and his son Nigoğayos Balyan, who were part of a famous Armenian family of architects for the Ottoman court.
Building the palace was very expensive! It cost about 35 tonnes of gold. To give you an idea, that's like $1.9 billion today (in 2021 gold value). This huge cost was a big burden on the empire's money.
The palace was home to six different Sultans starting from 1856. The last royal to live there was Caliph Abdülmecid II. In 1924, the palace became part of the new Turkish Republic.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded and became the first President of Turkey, used the palace as his summer home. He also did some very important work here. Sadly, Atatürk spent his last days in this palace and passed away here on November 10, 1938. All the clocks in the palace were stopped at 9:05 AM, the time he died. The clock in his room still shows 9:05.
Today, the palace is looked after by the Directorate of National Palaces.
Location
The place where Dolmabahçe Palace stands was once a bay on the Bosporus. It was used as a safe spot for the Ottoman navy's ships. Over time, in the 1700s, this bay was filled in. It became a beautiful imperial garden that the Ottoman sultans loved. This is where the name Dolmabahçe comes from. In Turkish, dolma means "filled" and bahçe means "garden," so it means "Filled-in Garden."
Many smaller summer palaces and wooden buildings were built here in the 1700s and 1800s. These formed a palace area called Beşiktaş Waterfront Palace. The new Dolmabahçe Palace is very large, covering 45,000 square meters. It is bordered by the Bosporus on one side and a steep hill on the other.
Design and Layout
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Dolmabahçe is the biggest palace in Turkey. It has 285 rooms, 46 halls, 6 baths, and 68 toilets!
The palace's design mixes different styles like Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical. These European styles are blended with traditional Ottoman architecture. This mix shows how European ideas started to influence Ottoman culture and art during that time. From the outside, especially from the Bosporus, it looks like a classic European palace with two main wings.
Inside, the palace still follows some traditional Ottoman ways of life. It is clearly divided into two main parts. The southern part is called Mabeyn-i Hümâyûn or Selamlık. This was the public area for men, where the Sultan met with important guests and foreign visitors. The northern part is called Harem-i Hümâyûn, or the Harem. This was the private living area for the Sultan and his family.
These two parts are separated by a huge Ceremonial Hall (Muayede Salonu). This hall is very big, about 2000 square meters, and has a dome that is 36 meters high. The Harem needed to be very private, so the main entrance for visitors is on the narrow southern side. The Harem area has eight connected apartments for the Sultan's wives, his favorites, and his mother, each with its own bathroom.
Décor and Equipment
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Unlike the older Topkapı Palace, which is famous for its beautiful tiles, Dolmabahçe Palace is covered in gold and crystal. About 14 tonnes of gold were used to decorate the ceilings! Over 100 kilograms of gold were used in total, which would cost about $6 million today.
The Ceremonial Hall has the world's largest crystal chandelier. It has 750 lamps and weighs 4.5 tonnes. For a long time, people thought it was a gift from Queen Victoria, but it was actually bought by the Sultan.
Dolmabahçe Palace also has the biggest collection of Bohemian and Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the world. The famous Crystal Staircase is shaped like a double horseshoe. It is made of Baccarat crystal, brass, and mahogany wood.
Expensive stones were used for decoration, like marble from Marmara Island, Egyptian alabaster, and Porphyry stone.
The palace has many beautiful Hereke palace carpets, made by the Hereke Imperial Factory. The carpet in the main hall is the largest Hereke rug in the world. There are also 150-year-old bearskin rugs that were given to the Sultan as a gift by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.
You can see a collection of 202 oil paintings in the palace. A special part of this collection are 23 paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky, who was a court painter. There are also paintings by other famous European and Turkish artists.
From the very beginning, the palace had the most advanced technology of its time. Gas lighting and modern toilets (called water-closets) were brought from Great Britain. At that time, many other palaces in Europe didn't even have these features! Later, electricity, a central heating system, and an elevator were also added.
Rooms
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Medhal (Main Entrance) Hall
Your visit to Dolmabahçe Palace starts in the Medhal Hall. The rooms on one side of this hall faced the sea, and these were used by important Ottoman officials like the Grand Vizier. The rooms on the other side faced the land and were used by palace administrators.
Guests would wait here before being led into the palace. In this hall, you can see special tables with Sultan Abdülmecid's monogram (royal symbol). The fireplace also has his monogram. A large English chandelier with sixty lamps hangs in the middle of the room. The furniture is covered in royal red fabrics from Hereke.
The Secretariat's Rooms
The second room to the right after the Medhal is the Clerk's Hall, also known as the Tiled Room. Here, you can see the largest painting in the palace, which shows the Surre Procession. This was a caravan that traveled from Istanbul to Mecca, carrying money to help maintain the Kaaba and support the people there.
This room also has French-style furniture and valuable porcelain vases.
Atatürk's Room
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk spent his final days in the palace as his health got worse. He passed away at 9:05 AM on November 10, 1938, in a bedroom located in the former harem area. To honor him, all the clocks in the palace were stopped and set to 9:05 after his death. The clocks outside his room now show the correct time, but the clock in the room where he died still points to 9:05.
Harem
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The Harem was a traditional part of many palaces in the Middle East. Sultan Abdülmecid built the Harem at Dolmabahçe to create separate, private living areas for the royal family. This included the Sultan's wives, his children, and other family members.
While many Sultans before him kept their wives and family very private, Sultan Abdülmecid allowed them to leave the palace to visit shops and markets, but always with supervision.
Gates
Gate of the Sultan
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The outside of the Gate of the Sultan (Saltanat Kapısı) on Dolmabahçe Avenue.
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The inside of the Gate of the Sultan (Saltanat Kapısı).
Gate of the Treasury
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The outside of the Gate of the Treasury (Hazine-i Hassa Kapısı) near the Dolmabahçe Clock Tower.
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The inside of the Gate of the Treasury (Hazine-i Hassa Kapısı), with the Clock Tower in the background.
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The outside of the Gate of the Treasury after it was fixed up.
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Gate to the Bosporus
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Outside view of the Gate to the Bosporus.
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Another outside view of the Gate to the Bosporus.
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Inside view of the Gate to the Bosporus.
Adjacent buildings
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Around the main palace, there are other buildings. These include the Crown Prince's palace, living areas for palace staff, and dormitories for servants and guards. There were also imperial kitchens, stables, a birdhouse, a plant nursery, and even a carpet workshop.
A beautiful mosque in the Baroque style was built near the palace between 1853 and 1855. It was ordered by the Sultan's mother, Bezm-i Âlem Valide Sultan. After some time, the mosque was used as a Naval Museum, but it was later returned to being a place of worship.
A clock tower (Dolmabahçe Saat Kulesi) stands in front of the main Imperial Gate, right by the Bosporus and next to the mosque. Sultan Abdülhamid II ordered this tower, and it was designed by Sarkis Balyan between 1890 and 1895. The clock inside was made by a French company.
See also
- List of Baroque residences
Literature
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- İskender Pala. The Jewel on the Bosphorus; Dolmabahçe Palace. TBMM Milli Saraylar Yayınları, Istanbul, 2006.
- İhsan Yücel, Sema Öner, F. Yaşar Yılmaz, Cengiz Göncü, Hakan Gülsün. Dolmabahçe Palace. TBMM Milli Saraylar Yayınları, Istanbul, 2005.
- İpek Fitöz. European Lights In Dolmabahçe Palace. TBMM Milli Saraylar Yayınları, Istanbul, 2007.
