Iconic Museums of the City

From Pera Museum to Topkapı Palace, from Istanbul Modern to the Archaeological Museum, bearing the traces of modern art, every museum invites you to a time journey. This cultural heritage flourishing in every corner of the city provides travelers with an unforgettable experience of learning and discovery.

Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum

The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, one of the important museums of Istanbul, has many awards. The museum, which is the meeting place of Islamic works, has a worldwide reputation. The most important feature of the museum is that it is the first museum established in this area in Turkey. The palace, which houses the museum, is known as the only private palace that has survived. The history of this building dates back to the 16th century. The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts was opened in 1914. Its name at that time was Evkaf-ı Islamiye Museum. The opening takes place inside the Süleymaniye Mosque Complex. Although it served here until 1983, it later moved to the İbrahim Pasha Palace, located in the western part of Sultanahmet Square.Ibrahim Pasha Palace rises in the area known as Horse Square. This building is also among the important examples of Ottoman civil architecture. It is repaired by Kanuni in time and given to his groom as a gift. You have to use the terrace to visit the first part of the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. The museum is lastly undergoing a large restoration in 2012. He returned with an award from the Council of Europe Museum Competition, a very prestigious competition held in 1984. A year later, it is deemed worthy of a different award by UNESCO. These awards make the museum known worldwide.The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts reflects the works of many civilizations from the Abbasids to the Mamluks, from the Ottomans to the Seljuks. There is a very impressive carpet collection in the museum. It is even considered as one of the best examples of carpet collection in the world. You can witness especially old Turkish carpets in the big hall. On the other hand, there are ceramic and metal objects and glassware in the museum. You can also visit the German Fountain and Spiral Column, which are works of the Hippodrome, here.

Istanbul Archeology Museum

Istanbul Archeology Museum is a part of the complex consisting of three separate units. Apart from the Istanbul Archeology Museum, this complex includes the Museum of Ancient Oriental Works and the Tiled Kiosk Museum. This is also the first museum in Istanbul. Hundreds of thousands of artifacts brought from the vast lands of the Ottoman Empire and belonging to different cultures are displayed in the complex.The Archeology Museum is one of the rare structures built for the direct purpose of a museum. It reflects the Neo-Classical architecture as a structure. On the pediment of the museum, the inscription "Asar-ı Atika Museum" in Ottoman language draws attention. It means museum of antiquities. In the tugra, which is located just above the Ottoman inscription, Sultan II. Abdülhamid's signature.The origin of the Istanbul Archeology Museum dates back to the period of Fatih Sultan Mehmet. The museum, which contains the cultural heritage of three different continents, has a very satisfying collection for visitors. Osman Hamdi Bey, who studied in France for years, plays a very important role in the formation of this museum. The first building of the museum falls short of exhibiting the works unearthed from the Sidon King Necropolis excavations. For this reason, the complex is entrusted to A. Vallaury, one of the successful architects of that period. The right and left wings of the museum are included in 1903 and 1907.The Istanbul Archeology Museum takes you around Gulhane Park to Osman Hamdi Bey Slope, which takes you directly to Topkapi Palace. There are many options to reach the museum. Bağcılar-Kabataş tram line or buses going in the direction of Eminönü can be evaluated. After arriving in Eminönü, you can visit the museum after a short walking distance. At the Istanbul Archeology Museum, which offers a very intense content; You can trace the civilizations in North Africa, Balkans, Near East and Central Asia.

Naval Museum

<html>Naval Museum, the largest museum in the field of seafaring in Turkey, is qualified as one of the important museums of the world in terms of the unique collection it houses. This museum, commissioned by Süleyman Nutki, the Major on 31 August 1897 by the order of, Bozcaadalı Hasan Hüsnü Pasha, the first lord of the admiralty, was established under the name of "Museum and Library Administration".The museum, which was established in a small building in the Kasımpaşa quarter, is now located in the Beşiktaş quarter towards the sea, next to the monument and tomb of Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha. The museum, which contains more than 20 thousand works of art, is very rich in terms of varieties. This place operates under the Admiralship, also bears the title of being the first military museum established in Turkey. It is possible to see the navy elements, including the Ottoman and Republic periods, at the same time and to realize the changes in history.The Naval Museum consists of a three-storey main exhibition building, 4 large halls and 17 rooms of exhibition area. The museum, where the royal boats in the oldest galleys of the world are also exhibited, attracts a great deal of attention from visitors. The entrance fees are kept at a quite reasonable level in order to attract sufficient number of visitors, where 14 world class imperial caique that have survived to the present day are exhibited. Students can also visit the museum for free of charge.Some of the works of art in the museum consist of Atatürk's belongings and anything you could think of with respect to maritime. Some of these include historical boats, logbooks, charters, imperial order, flags and banners, tombstones, inscriptions, ship models, diving suits, edicts and written works.</html>

Pera Museum

<html>Opened in 2005 in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Pera Museum offers the opportunity to closely examine the wide collection of paintings, weight-measurement-oriented old tools, rare Kütahya tiles and ceramics in an elegant building dating to the end of the 19th century and restored later.Among the more than 300 paintings on display, the striking works of European Orientalists and Ottoman painters, extending from the 17th century on a wide range of historical scale, can be examined closely. This comprehensive collection also includes Osman Hamdi Bey's Tortoise Trainer painting dating back to 1906, a work that has never lost its popularity.On the other hand, samples from various publications, temporary exhibitions, interviews and film screenings are organized at the Pera Museum. The exhibitions organized in the museum, which also serves as a cultural center, are famous for being supported by visual and verbal programs for all ages, including children. The museum is also known for its educational activities.Finally, Pera Museum is a center of attraction for a wide audience with its movie screenings. In addition to classic-independent films, documentaries and animations stand out, contributing to the city's cultural and artistic life.</html>

Ottoman Bank Museum

<html>In the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, when you go down from the famous Galata Tower to Bankalar Caddesi in Karaköy, you will see the sophisticated Ottoman Bank Museum. The museum, which can be easily seen as it is one of the most attractive buildings of its location, is built based on the restoration of the Old Headquarters Building.Within the museum, objects from the late Ottoman and early Republic periods can be seen. Besides, the bank's customer portfolio is conveyed visually in the light of some financial details. Giant photographs and projections decorating the walls can be viewed with various informative articles.In the museum, where there are four safes, you can enter these exciting places where the money used to be kept, as part of your visit. This experience, which is exciting for some, maybe frightening to others. It is not recommended for those who have claustrophobia. In general, you will not realize how time passes in the museum, which opens the doors of a historical bank with all its aspects, accompanied by a very modern ambiance ...The bank, which also took in charge of treasury duty in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, continued its corporate existence until recently, it was transferred to another financial institution in 2001 and ended structurally.</html>

Galata Mevlevi Lodge and Museum

<html>The Gatala Mevlevi Lodge and Museum has managed to bring music and science together for years. As you know, the places called the mevlevi lodges have an important place in the Turkish culture. Communities who gather at these places are trained comprehensively especially in fine arts. Those people who are trained in mevlevi lodges and become experts in their respective fields are called artists. The Galata Mevlevi Lodge and Museum is among the historical places worth seeing in İstanbul. This place is also the oldest mevlevi lodge known in the city. The Galata Mevlevi Lodge and Museum is located in Beyoğlu. This historical structure on Yüksek Kaldırım was built at the end of the 15th century. İskender Paşa played an important role in the construction of the Galata Mevlevi Lodge. He was also the Governor of Sultan Beyazıd II. When the Mevlevi Lodge was open, the first sheik was Mehmed Sema-i Çelebi. The structure burned down in a fire during the period of Mustafa III and a new one was built which has managed to survive so far. The Galata Mevlevi Lodge was repaired during the period of Selim III. It actively operated until the proclamation of the Republic. It was left to its fate from 1925 to 1967. After a new repair which lasted for 5 years, it was put to service again in 1972. This time, it was opened as a complex. This group of structures has a fountain, a library, a meeting hall and a sema all and others. A part of the wooden section is used as the Semahane Museum and there is a repair inscription on the entrance. The inscription points at 1853 as the date of construction and is signed by Abdülmecid. The Galata Mevlevi Lodge and Museum has an octagonal layout. When you visit here, you can see the handwritten works of important names such as Poet Leyla Hanım and Şeyh Galip. The Galata Mevlevi Lodge has been serving as a musum since 1975. It is open to visitors everyday other than Mondays.</html>

Hagia Irene Church Museum

<html>Hagia Irene Church, which is the first church of Byzantine, was built on Roman temples by Constantine in 330s. Hagia Irene, which means "Holy Peace" or "Divine Peace" as a word, is located in the first courtyard of Topkapı Palace. Hagia Irene Church Museum, which is visited by thousands of local and foreign tourists every year due to its proximity to Hagia Sophia known all over the world, actually has the title of being the largest Byzantine church in Istanbul that has not been turned into a mosque.The Hagia Irene Church, of which construction date goes back to the 4th century and has traces of Byzantine architecture in general terms, was built during the period of Constantine I covering the years 324 to 337. The historical building, which was severely damaged as a result of earthquakes in the 8th and 9th centuries, could not be turned into a mosque as it remained in the place surrounding Sur-ı Sultani, that is, Topkapı Palace, after the conquest of Istanbul. Hagia Irene Church, which has been used for different purposes such as interior ammunition and the weapon warehouse of the Ministry of War, has managed to survive since its first construction without losing its architectural texture.The first objects collected in Hagia Irene church, where the first museum works began in Turkey, consisted of Mecma-i Esliha-i Atika known as the Old Weapons Collection and Antiquities Collection. The works moved to Tiled Pavilion in 1875 afterwards were presented to the visitors as a "military museum" until 1949.It is also possible to go to Hagia Irene Church Museum, which can be easily reached by getting off at the Gülhane stop of the Kabataş - Bağcılar tram line, by Üsküdar - Eminönü and Kadıköy Eminönü ferries. Hagia Irene Church Museum, which is closed to visitors today, can only be visited with the permission of Hagia Sophia Museum Directorate.</html>

Museum of the Ancient Orient

<html>The Museum of Ancient Orient houses an extensive collection. This collection consists of pieces from Mesopotamia and Anatolia's pre-Islamic times. The period when the artifacts were unearthed is largely the period until World War I began. The collected artifacts are brought to Istanbul, which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire for a long time. Museum of the Ancient Orient has sections such as Egyptian Artifacts, Pre-Islamic Artifacts, and Cuneiform Documents. These classifications allow the museum to be visited in a comfortable and orderly manner. Many Anatolian cultures are presented with their own special histories. Tablet Archive is among the most interesting sections of the museum. A total of 75,000 cuneiform materials, especially the exciting documents of very important agreements, are exhibited in the archive section here. The history of this special building, which hosts the museum, dates back to 1883. The museum building was first built as the Academy of Fine Arts with the efforts of Osman Hamdi Bey. It is said that this academy formed the foundations of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in the later periods. Likewise, Osman Hamdi Bey is a person who contributed to the Ottoman cultural life for a long time and pioneered in taking historical steps especially in the field of museology.Alexander Vallaury is known as the architecture of the historical building. This person also built the classic building of the Archeology Museum to be opened in the following years. When the academy decided to continue its activities at another point after a while, this place was transferred to the museum directorate. It was during this period that Halil Edhem Bey, the museum director of the period, matured the first ideas about this museum. Although the museum was completed in 1935, it was evacuated during the war. With the major changes made in 1974, the museum regained its current appearance.</html>

The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews

<html>The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews, which was put into service by The Quincentennial Foundation on November 25, 2001, is an important building that provides vast information about Turkish Jews. The museum, which was established in 1989 to celebrate the arrival of Sephardic Jews (Jews and Muslim Turks) to the Ottoman Empire, consists of three separate sections.In the first section of the The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews, which is adapted according to today's modern technologies and equipped with interactive panels, the history of the Jews living in Anatolian lands starting from the fourth century BC to today is explained.The most striking objects of the The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews, where the touch-operated computer system is in service in all sections, are print works and newspaper samples of the Turkish Jewish press, are the works published before and after the Republic. In addition, this section includes objects used in religious rituals.Ethnography, another part of the museum, deals with the life cycle from birth to death. In addition to the ethnography section where various presentations, pictures and videos are shown with barcovision, the last section also includes objects that reflect important values such as holidays, traditions and customs, religion, language and food cultures. In addition, you can witness the Judeo-Spanish language oral history study in this section.It was first established in an old synagogue building in Perçemli Street in Karaköy, one of the most beautiful districts of Istanbul, and later on it moved to Şişhane Neve Shalom Synagogue on September 20, 2015.It is open between 10:00 a.m and 16:00 p.m from Monday to Thursday and between 10:00 a.m and 14:00 p.m on Fridays and Sundays and, is closed on Saturdays and on some special days. The 500. Yıl Vakfı Turkish Jews Museum, which is open between 10:00 and 14:00 on Fridays and Sundays, is closed on Saturdays and some special days.</html>

Museum of Great Palace Mosaics

<html>The Museum of Great Palace Mosaics, which has a very central location in the southern part of İstanbul Blue Mosque, is one of the museums with the most comprehensive and richest collections situated in the Fatih district of İstanbul. The museum, which you can easily reach by public transportation vehicles such as tram, metro, and metrobus, was put into service in 1953 as a part of Istanbul Archeology Museums. The restoration of the mosaics belonging to the Museum of Great Palace Mosaics, which was bound to Hagia Sophia Museum in 1979, began in 1982 in accordance with the protocol signed between the Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Monuments and Museums and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The Museum of Great Palace Mosaics, the restoration and conservation works of which was completed and put into service again in 1997, is admired by everyone with its historic mosaics dating between 450 to 550 AD. These unique mosaics, the subjects of which are not religious, were inspired by daily life and nature in general, and they were crafted by a magnificent craftsmanship. The Great Palace mosaics, which include countless subjects ranging from a child feeding his donkey to a man milking goat, the struggle of the elephant and the lion and the griffon eating a lizard, to the girl carrying the jug and the bears eating apples, are unprecedented in terms of beauty.The floor of the Museum of Great Palace Mosaics, located in the Arasta Bazaar in Sultanahmet Square, consists of a peristyle known as a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of building or a courtyard. These magnificent mosaics, which include 150 human and animal figures as well as 90 different themes, have taken their current appearance after long restoration works. The average size of mosaic grains made of colored stones, terracotta and limestone is about five millimeters.</html>

Sakip Sabanci Museum (Equestrian Mansion)

Sakıp Sabancı Museum, also known as the 'Equestrian Mansion', has a unique location on the Rumeli side overlooking the Bosphorus. The museum building facing the Emirgan coastal road was built by the Italian architect Edouard de Nari by the Khedive Family. The mansion, which dates back to 1927, was used as a summer residence for a long time. The mansion, which was used as the Montenegrin Embassy for a very short time, was bought by Hacı Ömer Sabancı in 1950 and named as 'The Horseman's Mansion'.Sakıp Sabancı settled in the mansion in 1966, after the second horse statue was added to the land where the historical house is located, which is called the Atlı Köşk due to the horse sculpture of the French sculptor Louis Doumas, whose construction dates back to 1864. The mansion dates back to 1998, when it was turned into a museum, where its rich and eye-catching collection of paintings and calligraphy attracts attention. With its transformation into a museum, the mansion takes the name 'Sakıp Sabancı Museum'. It was opened to visitors in 2002 by incorporating a modern gallery.Sakıp Sabancı Museum, whose exhibition areas were expanded after a comprehensive restoration in 2005, is technically brought into compliance with international standards. 96 works were selected from the collection, which includes hilyes, plates, warrants, edicts and manuscripts, calligrapher instruments and many more, and were exhibited at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, the capital of Spain, in 2008.It is possible to come across many artifacts from the Ottoman Period in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, which is distinguished from other museums with its painting collection and contains the rarest examples of early Turkish painting. So much so that it is possible to see the works of many famous painters from Şeker Ahmet Pasha to Osman Hamdi Bey, from Süleyman Seyyit to Fikret Mualla and İbrahim Çallı in this museum.

Hazırlayan

GeziBilen

Dijital Rehber