Famous Locations of Beshiktash:
Ciragan Palace
The simplest Ottoman palaces to find are Dolmabagtche and Ciragan, both built right on the embankment of the Bosporus. During his short reign in the early 1600s, Sultan Murad IV built Ciragan on the stone foundation covering the bay, and for the next 100 years, sultans entertained guests by torchlight on its grounds. It’s from these flame-lit festivals the palace received its name. Ciragan means “light” in Persian, although some translate it as “a special light”. From 1834 to 1843, Sultan Mahmud rebuilt Ciragan to its current condition: a classically-styled stone palace adorned with 40 pillars around its edifice. Despite its long history of festivals and the renovations of his father, Sultan Abdulmejid plans to demolish the palace complex next year to clear the foundation for a new building. Until then, the Sultan resides in the palace to keep an eye on the nearby construction of Dolmabagtche palace.
Yildiz Park
Behind Ciragan palace, lovely coniferous woodlands spread over about 25 acres of hills and valleys. The imperial family ownes the grounds since the reign of Sultan Ahmed. They use the forests for hunting, holidays, and to lose their memory of city life in the quiet landscape. In the late 1700s, Sultan Selim III built a beautiful villa on the western edge of the forest for his mother Mihrişah. He named the villa “Yildiz”, meaning “star”. Over time the name extended past the villa’s garden to cover all the wood.
Ihlamur Palace
On the slope of Yildiz hill about a mile north of the Bosporus is Sultan Abdulmejid’s summer home, the newly rebuilt Ihlamur palace. The Sultan and his most honored guests holiday in this tranquil retreat made of two ornate mansions. Although both were built in a lavishly baroque style, Merasim Kosk, where the sultan stays, is the larger and more luxurious mansion, while his guests and visiting family stay in Maiyet Kiosk the simpler and plainer of the two. Stone walls keep out undesirables from the well-maintained pleasure gardens and protect the roaming peacocks from predators. The sultan himself oversaw the replanting of the thick wood of sweet-smelling linden trees surrounding Ihlamur.
Dolmabagtche Palace
West of Ciragan on the shore of the Bosporus sits the nearly-finished Dolmabagtche palace. For the past eight years, the Sultan Abdulmejid visited almost every day to check on the progress of the construction. Unlike the surrounding summer palaces in Beshiktash, Abdulmejid intends Dolmabagtche to be his home, replacing the medieval Topkapi palace as his domicile. The terrific expense of finishing and furnishing the palace during wartime worries the Turkish, English, and French diplomats trying to keep Turkey’s economy running, not to mention the revolutionaries keen to bring economic change.
Sultan Abdulmejid intends his palace to impresses any visitor. With 285 rooms, Dolmabagtche is the largest palace in Constantinople. Its neoclassical marble exterior shows obvious European influence. The excessively lavish interior is opulent to the point of being gaudy. Many of the finished rooms have furnishings from England and France, and gas lamps hang on the interiors walls waiting to be connected. Despite the European styling, Dolmabagtche holds on to the fundamentals of Ottoman palace construction. The Southern Wing holds the quarters for men, the Northern Wing houses the harem, and the grand Ceremonial Hall in the center separates the two.
High walls surround the palace’s luxuriously foliaged grounds. The head gardener, a Bavarian named Chistian Sester, scoured the world for rare trees and statuary to decorate the garden. As the Sultans’ aviary-keeper, Mr. Sester also bought the elaborate cages housing the palace’s exotic birds.
Every day, crowds of blind and lame woman gather along the road to Dolmabagtche and wait for the Sultan to arrive. As he passes, one of his officials hands out silver (and occasionally gold) coins to the beggar women. Only women are allowed to beg here for the sake of the Sultan’s safety.
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