Florence Nightingale Museum

Lonely Planet review

The experience of visiting the Selimiye Army Barracks, where this museum is housed, is even better than the museum itself. The barracks, built by Mahmut II in 1828 on the site of a barracks originally built by Selim III in 1799 and extended by Abdül Mecit I in 1842 and 1853, is the headquarters of the Turkish First Army, the largest division in the country, and is an extremely handsome building, with 2.5km of corridors, 300 rooms and 300 windows.

During the Crimean War (1853-56) the barracks became a military hospital where the famous lady with the lamp and 38 nursing students worked. It was here that Nightingale put in practice the innovative nursing methods that history has remembered her for. Though they seem commonsensical from a modern perspective, it is hard to overstate how radical they seemed at the time. It really is amazing to hear that before she arrived, the mortality rate was 70% of patients and when she left it had dropped to 5%. The museum is spread over three levels in the northwest tower of the barracks. Downstairs there is a display charting the history of the First Army and concentrating on the Crimean War. On the two upstairs levels you see Nightingale's personal quarters, including her surgery room with original furnishings (including two lamps) and her living room, with extraordinary views across to Old İstanbul. Here there are exhibits such as an original letter explaining how the lady herself defined being a good nurse.

To visit, you need to fax a letter requesting to visit and nominating a time. Include a photocopy of your passport photo page. Do this 48 hours before you wish to visit and make sure you include your telephone number in İstanbul so that someone can respond to your request. The recruits who vet your papers at the entrance, show you from the security check to the museum, and take you on a guided tour are almost all young conscripts counting down the days until their military service is finished. They may not all speak English (although the tour is always in that language) but they are without exception charming and helpful. Their mothers would be proud!

The museum is about half way between Üsküdar and Kadıköy, near the fairytale-like clock towers of the TC Marmara University.