Topkapı Palace

As the administrative center , for nearly 400 years, for the Ottoman Empire, which was one of the greatest empires of the world, Topkapi Palace is certainly the most important historical site to be visited in Istanbul. That is the reason why Topkapi Palace is one of the most frequently visited museums of Europe, and is the most visited one in Turkey with a number of more than 2,5 million visitors per year.
After the conquest of Istanbul by the Turks in 1453, the Ottoman Sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who stayed in a rather small palace for a while near the Grand Bazaar, in the district of Bayezid, constructed the structures that formed the essence of Topkapi

Palace on the ruins of ancient Roman city, between the years of 1475-1478. In the following centuries, all the Ottoman Sultans enriched and widened the palace with new structures until it was abandoned in the 19th century.

The original name of the palace used to be 'Saray-i Cedide-i Amire', however, because of the huge cannons in front of the doors of the palace, the public gave the name 'Topkapi', and this name was commonly used by the locals. The palace, surrounded with walls, around five kilometers, has a total area of around 700.000 m2 which is twice the area of Vatican and half of Monaco in size.

The palace was protected by 28 towers. The surrounding city walls along the coast date from the Byzantine period, and the land walls are the work of the Ottomans. There are three entrances on the sea and four on the opposite.

Nearly 5.000 visitors per day visited the palace where approximately 5.000 people who were members of Dynasty, dignitaries, mling class, maidservants and soldiers lived. Most of the buildings in the palace were destroyed in the big fires and earthquakes which took place frequently in the 16th and 17th centuries and they were restored for a few times. For this reason, different architectural styles of different periods from 15th to 16th may be observed. The general architectural plan of the Topkapi Palace, which is composed of two parts, one of which is ENDERUN, where the Sultan and members of the dynasty lived and the other BIRUN, where high level civil servants manage the works of the government does not

resemble to the classical architecture of European palaces. Even though wide and long building including hundreds of rooms and wide gardens behind and in front of the building form the general style of European palaces, Ottomans have preferred quite a different style. Ottomans, who had a nomadic life until a few centuries before the construction of Topkapi Palace, have reflected nomadic traditions to palace architecture as well. Just as the nomads pitch their tents around a vacant area in order to eat and have fun, Ottomans while constructing Topkapi Palace, left great gardens in the middle and constructed palace buildings around them.

When we come to the main entrance after going around the Hagia Sophia, the door we meet is Bab-i Humaytin Door. In front of this door, the splendid fountain building on the right was constructed in 1728 by Sultan Ahmet III. In the Ottoman Times, sherbet (fruit sweet drink) was sold in the small shops located at the sides of this building which was attracting attention with its five domes and tasteful embroideries. Passing through the Bab-i Hiimayun. constructed by Fatih Sultan Mehmet in 1478, visitors face the wide and long 'first courtyard'. On the right side of this courtyard, one can see gendarme station, park areas, dwellings of palace servants, ruins of palace hospital and palace bakery and behind, Marmara Sea. On the left side appear Church of St. Irene and the old Ottoman treasury, and far behind is the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. St. Irene and Archaeological Museums will be introduced in detail in the following chapters.

Through the first courtyard and the ticket office, we pass through the 'BAB-US SELAM' the second main door of the palace and begin our visit in the museum. This door which was constructed during the reigns of Mehmet II is also called as the Central Door. The tower to the left of the door, which was made of wrought iron in 1524 was also used as a prison for those high level servants, who committed a crime during the Ottoman period. There is a myth that executioners used to wash their swords under the fountain in front of the door after executing death sentence.

When we pass through Bab-iis Selam, the courtyard we face is a huge garden 130 m. in width and 160 m. in length, full of very old cypress and plain trees. The small scale models of the palace just by the entrance of this courtyard give the visitors a good idea about the size of the palace. Also, the maps hung on the walls reveal the expansion of the empire during its establishment and rising. The section to the right side of the entrance displays the sultan's chariots.

When the sultan was in the palace, it was forbidden to talk at the 2nd courtyard surrounded with one-floor buildings, although it was open for the foreigners and the people who came for seeing divan or kitchens. There were gazelles, peacocks and some other exotic animals wandering in the garden which was cared by hundreds of gardeners, it was almost like a Eden Garden. The complete right wing of the second courtyard was the 'palace kitchen'.

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