Dolmabahçe Palace

Dolmabahçe Palace (Turkish: Dolmabahçe Sarayı [doɫˈmabahtʃe saɾaˈjɯ]) is a 19th-century imperial palace located in Istanbul, Turkey, along the European shore of the Bosporus, which served as the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1853 to 1887 and from 1909 to 1922.

Dolmabahçe Palace was ordered by the empire's 31st sultan, Abdülmecid I, and built between the years 1843 and 1853. Previously, the sultan and his family had lived at the Topkapı Palace, but as the medieval Topkapı was lacking in contemporary style, luxury, and comfort, as compared to the palaces of the European monarchs, Abdülmecid decided to build a new modern palace near the site of the former Beşiktaş Sahil Palace, which was demolished. Hacı Said Ağa was responsible for the construction works, while the project was realized by architects Garabet Balyan, his son Nigoğayos Balyan and Evanis Kalfa (members of the Armenian Balyan family of Ottoman court architects).

As of May 29, 2025, the construction cost the equivalent of ca. US$3 billion: five million Ottoman lira, or 35 tonnes of gold. This sum corresponded to approximately a quarter of the yearly tax revenue. The construction was financed through debasement, by massive issue of paper money, as well as by foreign loans. The huge expenses placed an enormous burden on the state purse and contributed to the deteriorating financial situation of the Ottoman Empire, which eventually defaulted on its public debt in October 1875, with the subsequent establishment in 1881 of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA) for financial control over the "sick man of Europe" by the European powers.

The palace was home to six sultans from 1853, when it was first inhabited, up until the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924: The last royal to live here was Caliph Abdülmecid II. A law that took effect on March 3, 1924 transferred ownership of the palace to the national heritage of the new Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey, used the palace as a presidential residence during the summers and enacted some of his most important works here. Atatürk spent the last days of his medical treatment in this palace, where he died on November 10, 1938.

Text adapted from “Dolmabahçe Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Dolmabahçe Palace ranks #51 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #2 of the 126 mapped in Turkey. Founded 1823, it is older than 11% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 562 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 42,415 times in the last 60 days, more than 99% of the atlas. 23 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Istanbul, 5 km away. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.

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