Çırağan Palace

The Ciragan Palace ( Turkish Ciragan Sarayi ) in Istanbul, Turkey, is a former sultan's palace and now a luxury hotel with 5-star class.

Location

The palace is located on the Bosphorus Strait, south of Ortaköy in Beşiktaş. Behind the Ciragan Palace is the Yıldız Park.

History

In the 16th century the property belonged to the water, to the present-day palace hotel stands, Admiral Kilic Ali Pasha. The Kazancıoğlu - called garden plot stretching from Beşiktaş to Ortaköy.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the English ambassador Edward Wortley Montagu in the Ottoman Empire, described around 1717 in a letter to the Ciragan Palace with the words: He stands on one of the most beautiful places on the canal, and behind it there is a hill with a beautiful forest. Its dimensions are amazing; the guard assured me that he harbored eight hundred room, which I neither confirm nor deny, however, can, as I did not count them; However, the number is certainly very great, and everything is quite extravagant marble, gold and wonderful paintings of fruit and flowers decorated. The windows are fitted with the finest crystal glass from England, and here you can experience all the costly splendor that one would expect from a palace which was built by a young man who has all the wealth of a great empire.

Ahmet III. gave the Kazancıoğlu - garden to his son, the Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha of Nevsehir, who built the first " Yali " ( waterfront villa) there. Together with his wife Fatma Sultan, he organized festivities there with a torch lighting that came to be called Ciragan Senlikleri ( Ciragan light festivals). Therefore, the present name Ciragan stems. For a time, the Palace of Mahmut I was used as a banquet hall for state visitors.

At the beginning of the 19th century the property was the Grand Vizier of Sultan Selim III. purchased, the tear down the building and by the Armenian architect Krikor Balyan in 1805 a new palace as a gift for the Emperor had built. This in turn gave the property to his sister Beyhan further, but did not want to accept the gift. As a result, Sultan Mahmud II used the plant as a summer residence. He tore down the palace again, this time by the architect Garabed Balyan to build it again in glorious style. 1855 Sultan Abdülmecid I decided to take his official residence in the Palace of Dolmabahçe. This caused a renewed demolition and reconstruction, this time by Nigogos Balian. However, the construction was completed due to political crises and associated financial problems only in 1857 under Sultan Abdulaziz. Under Sultan Abdulaziz is learned Palace an architectural style shift toward Arab, for which artists were sent to North Africa and Spain to create copies dortiger famous buildings. According to legend, the plans of the building due to the changing wishes of the ruler were twenty -created.

In the Berlin Museum you can find some of the palace doors, each of which has been produced for a thousand gold pieces to admire today. These doors were a gift to Emperor Wilhelm II, who had admired the pieces on a visit to Istanbul extensively. Sultan Murat V was arrested after a coup until his death in 1904 with his family at the Ciragan Palace. From 14 November 1909, the palace served for two months as a Parliament. 1910, the palace was destroyed in a fire. Only the outer walls intact. 1946, the building ruins along with the park was passed by Parliament on the community of Istanbul. The municipality used the ruins on the Bosphorus as a building material depot and sports court.

In 1987, the palace was acquired by a Japanese group of investors and expanded as the Palace Hotel Kempinski hotel group. The interiors have been designed in a Mediterranean style. Since the hotel is part of the association " The Leading Hotels of the World ".

In 2007, the hotel underwent a major renovation again.

Views of the Ciragan Palace

View from Bosphous from around 1840

Unloading operations at the palace during the fire of 1909

Seen from the Bosphorus from

Seen facade of the palace from the land

Gateway to the Bosphorus at night

Large entrance hall with view of the Atrium

Atrium in the Ciragan

One of the Salone to the Bosphorus

Exhibition Salon