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The place behind the detail.
State rooms, a private Harem and gardens on the Bosphorus offer several ways into the story of Dolmabahçe Palace.
On this page
The largest palace in Türkiye
Built under Sultan Abdülmecid and lived in from 1856, Dolmabahçe Palace has 285 rooms, 44 halls and six Turkish baths. With a ground area of 14,595 square metres, the National Palaces describe it as the largest single-block palace in Türkiye.
Its main building has three parts: the Selamlık for the affairs of state, the Harem for the sultan’s family, and the Ceremonial Hall between them.
Ottoman plan, European decoration
The rooms keep the Turkish house plan of a central hall with rooms around it, while Baroque, Rococo and Neo-Classical decoration covers walls and ceilings.
Hereke carpets, Baccarat crystal, Sèvres and Yıldız porcelain, gifts from heads of state and paintings by Western artists furnish the palace.
From sultans to the Republic
Six sultans and the last caliph lived here. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed and worked at the palace between 1927 and 1938 and died here; it opened as a palace-museum in 1984.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
