History, architecture & heritage

A palace on the Bosphorus.
An Istanbul landmark.

The story of Dolmabahçe Palace, from a filled-in imperial garden to the palace of six sultans and a museum.

The white marble façade of Dolmabahçe Palace on the Bosphorus — The palace’s long façade on the European shore of the Bosphorus.

A garden made from the sea

The palace stands on a bay that served as a natural harbour since antiquity. Filled in from the 17th century, it became an imperial garden, Dolmabahçe, the “filled garden”, beside the older Beşiktaş Waterfront Palace.

A red-upholstered salon with gilded furniture inside Dolmabahçe Palace

A new palace for Sultan Abdülmecid

Under Sultan Abdülmecid the old waterfront palace was pulled down and Dolmabahçe Palace was built by the imperial architects Karabet Balyan, Nikogos Balyan, Ohannes Serveryan and James William Smith. Six sultans and the last caliph lived here from 1856.

Republic and museum

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed and worked at the palace between 1927 and 1938, and died here in 1938. It was a presidential residence until 1949 and opened to visitors as a palace-museum, with its original furnishings, in 1984.