Showing 1-17 of 17 results
-
Askeri Müzesi
For a rousing museum experience try to visit in the afternoon so that you can enjoy the concert given by the Mehter, the medieval Ottoman Military Band, between and daily. On the ground floor are displays of weapons, a 'martyrs' gallery ( şehit galerisi ) with artefacts from fallen Turkish soldiers of many wars, displays of Turkish military uniforms through the ages, and glass cases holding battle standards, both Turkish and captured.
-
Dolmabahçe Palace
These days it's fashionable for architects and critics influenced by the less-is-more aesthetic of the Bauhaus masters to sneer at buildings such as Dolmabahçe. The crowds that throng to this imperial pleasure palace with its neoclassical exterior and over-the-top interior fit out clearly don't share their disdain, though.
-
Florence Nightingale Museum
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.
-
Galata Mevlevihanesi
If you thought the Hare Krishnas or the Harlem congregations were the only religious orders to celebrate their faith through music and movement, think again. Those sultans of spiritual spin known as the Whirling Dervishes have been twirling their way to a higher plane ever since the 13th century and show no sign of slowing down soon.
-
Great Palace Mosaics Museum
When archaeologists from the University of Ankara and the University of St Andrews (Scotland) dug at the back of the Blue Mosque in the 1950s, they uncovered a stunning mosaic pavement dating from early Byzantine times. Restored from 1983 to 1997, it is now preserved in this museum. Thought to have been added by Justinian to the Great Byzantine Palace , the pavement is estimated to have measured from 3500 to 4000 sq metres in its original form.
-
İstanbul Archaeology Museums
It may not pull the number of visitors that flock to nearby Topkapı, but this is a stunner of a museum complex that shouldn't be missed. It can be easily reached by walking down the slope from Topkapı's Court of the Janissaries First Court, or by walking up the hill from the main gate of Gülhane Parkı, just near the tram stop.
-
İstanbul Modern
In recent years İstanbul's contemporary art scene has boomed. Facilitated by the active cultural philanthropy of the country's industrial dynasties - many of which have built extraordinary arts collections - museum buildings are opening nearly as often as art exhibitions. İstanbul Modern, funded by the Eczcıbaşı family, is the big daddy of them all.
-
Mevlevi Monastery
The Museum of Court Literature in the Mevlevi Monastery, is one of only a handful of functioning tekkes (dervish lodges) remaining in İstanbul. It's a slightly run-down compound and is really only worth visiting if you're here to see the sema (ceremony), and/or you feel like catching respite from the hubbub of Beyoğlu in the pleasant, shady gardens.
-
Miniaturk
We're can't explain why this new museum has been such a hit with locals. Marketed as a miniature park that showcases 'all times and locations of Anatolia at the same place at the same time', it's a bizarre tiny town stocked with models of Turkey's great buildings - everything from the Celsus Library at Ephesus to Atatürk International Airport - set in manicured lawns dotted with fake rocks blasting a distorted recording of the national anthem.
-
Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts
İbrahim Paşa was Süleyman the Magnificent's close friend and brother-in-law. Captured by Turks as a child in Greece, he had been sold as a slave into the imperial household in İstanbul and worked as a page in Topkapı, where he became friendly with Süleyman, who was the same age. When his friend became sultan, İbrahim was made in turn chief falconer, chief of the royal bedchamber and grand vizier.
-
Advertisement
-
Museum Of Turkish Calligraphic Art
Housed in a small building at the western side of Beyazıt Square, this museum contains wall hangings and manuscripts illustrating mainly cursive calligraphic styles, many dating from the 13th century. There are also some examples of calligraphy on stone, tile and glass. The building, once the medrese of Beyazıt Camii, is a series of rooms surrounding a leafy courtyard.
-
Ortaköy Camii
Right on the water's edge, this mosque is the work of Nikoğos Balyan, one of the architects of Dolmabahçe Palace. It was built for Sultan Abdül Mecit III between 1853 and 1855. With the super-modern Bosphorus Bridge now looming behind it, the mosque provides a fabulous photo opportunity for those wanting to illustrate İstanbul's 'old meets new' character.
-
Pera Museum
The most beloved painting in the Turkish canon - Osman Hamdı Bey's The Tortoise Trainer - sold at auction in late 2005 for a massive US$3.5 million. Turks were worried that the painting might be lost to the nation, so there was rejoicing when this new, privately funded museum announced that it had been the successful bidder and that the painting would be the focal point of its wonderful Orientalist painting collection.
-
Rahmi M Koç Müzesi
Located on the Beyoğlu side of the Golden Horn, Hasköy was for centuries a small, predominantly Jewish village. In the Ottoman period it also became home to a naval shipyard and a sultan's hunting ground. Today, its main claim to fame is a splendid industrial museum. Founded by the head of the Koç industrial group, one of Turkey's most prominent conglomerates, it exhibits artefacts from İstanbul's industrial past.
-
Sadberk Hanım Müzesi
North of the village of Tarabya are some of the old summer embassies of foreign powers. When the heat and fear of disease increased in the warm months, foreign ambassadors would retire to palatial residences, complete with lush gardens, on this shore. The region for such embassy residences extended north to the village of Büyükdere, notable for its churches, summer embassies and the Sadberk Hanım Müzesi.
-
Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi
On the opposite shore to Kanlıca is the wealthy suburb of Emirgan, home to the recently opened and extremely impressive Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi, which hosts international travelling art exhibitions. The museum is home to one of İstanbul's hottest eateries, Müzedechanga.
-
Sirkeci Railway Station
The romance of the Orient Express and other locomotives of the era was reflected in the design for this train station, built as the terminus of European routes in 1881. Designed by a German architect, it is an excellent example of Islamic Eclecticism, an architectural movement introduced into İstanbul by European architects at the end of the 19th century.
Showing 1-17 of 17 results
