Beylerbeyi Palace: the summer palace under the Bosphorus Bridge
Abdülaziz’s summer palace on the Asian shore, where emperors stayed and a deposed sultan spent his last years — its history, its rooms, its gardens and which parts are closed today.
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Most people see Beylerbeyi Palace long before they learn its name. It is the long white building on the Asian shore that sits almost directly beneath the Bosphorus Bridge, and every ferry and cruise up the strait passes in front of it.
Far fewer go inside, which is a shame. Beylerbeyi is a complete summer palace, furnished and set in terraced gardens, and a visit here is a good deal calmer than anything on the European side.
Built for summers and for guests
People have lived on this stretch of shore since Byzantine times. In the early nineteenth century Mahmud II built a wooden palace here; it burned in 1851, and Sultan Abdülaziz replaced it with the present palace and its outbuildings, put up between 1863 and 1865. The design is credited to Sarkis Balyan, of the family of architects behind much of nineteenth-century imperial Istanbul.
Beylerbeyi was never meant to be a seat of government. It was a summer palace, and above all a place to receive foreign heads of state in suitable style.
Emperors, an empress and a prince
The guest book is the palace’s best credential. In 1869 alone it received Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary and Empress Eugénie of France, who stopped in Istanbul on her way to the opening of the Suez Canal. Prince Nikola of Montenegro stayed in 1874, and the German Emperor Wilhelm II was also among its guests.
Eugénie’s visit left a mark further along the same shore: on 15 October 1869 a banquet and a military parade were held in her honour at the Beykoz Mecidiye Pavilion, a little way up the Bosphorus.
A deposed sultan’s last home
The palace’s quietest chapter is also its most moving. Abdülhamid II, who had ruled from Yıldız for 33 years, was deposed on 27 April 1909 and sent to Thessaloniki. When that city was threatened in the Balkan War he was brought back to Istanbul on 1 November 1912 and lodged at Beylerbeyi.
He lived here in confinement until his death on 10 February 1918, and was buried in the tomb of Mahmud II on Divanyolu. Some of the trees in the gardens were planted during his reign, decades before he returned as a prisoner.
Inside: Mâbeyn and Harem
The visit covers the main building, which is split, as Ottoman palaces were, into the Mâbeyn — the men’s and official side — and the Harem. It has three floors including the basement. Western styles are laid over an Eastern plan: the rooms open off central halls much as in a traditional Turkish house, only on an imperial scale.
Look down as well as up. The floors are covered with matting brought from Egypt, a cool surface for a summer house. Around it are Hereke carpets, Baccarat crystal chandeliers, clocks made in England, in France and at the imperial shipyard on the Golden Horn, and vases in Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Yıldız porcelain. Some rooms carry paintings of ships under the Ottoman flag and verses in calligraphy.
The gardens, and what is closed
Behind the palace the gardens climb the hill in terraces joined by stairs and ramps; about 70 dönüm, roughly seven hectares, survive. Magnolias and chestnuts grow in the private garden, lime trees in the Harem garden and Judas trees — the redbud that turns the Bosphorus pink in spring — on the terraces. All are known to have been planted under Abdülhamid II.
Several of the finest buildings in the grounds are currently closed to visitors, according to the National Palaces administration: the paired Sea Pavilions, one for the Mâbeyn and one for the Harem, with octagonal roofs painted with animals; the Yellow Pavilion; the Marble Pavilion, Mahmud II’s hunting lodge of 1829–1832 with a pool and fountain inside; and the Stable Pavilion, built for the sultan’s horses, with twenty stalls and horse figures on its ceilings.
They are worth knowing about even from outside. Old records call the Sea Pavilions “tent pavilions” or nevresm, “the new design”. The Yellow Pavilion has two floors over a basement, one side tucked into the woods and the other open to the view. In the Stable Pavilion, set on the last garden terrace, even the chandeliers carry reliefs of horses’ heads.
Parts of any National Palaces site can also close for restoration, and there is no refund for sections you cannot see. If one room matters to you, ask at the ticket office before you pay.
Practical notes
Beylerbeyi is closed on Mondays; the ticket offices open 09:00–17:00. Tickets are sold at the palace and on the National Palaces e-ticket system, and a cheaper garden-only ticket is available. The Müzekart is accepted. An audio guide comes free with every ticket, though not with the Müzekart. Pushchairs are not allowed inside the building.
The palace is on the Üsküdar side of the Bosphorus, just north of Üsküdar itself. The easiest approach is to cross to Üsküdar by ferry and continue on one of the buses or minibuses that run north along the shore road, getting off at Beylerbeyi by the bridge.
With a whole day to spare, carry on up the same road to the Küçüksu and Beykoz Mecidiye pavilions. Both are closed on Mondays too.