Beylerbeyi Palace

At 800 TL for foreign visitors, Beylerbeyi costs under half of what Dolmabahce charges, and on a weekday you may share its rooms with just a few other people. It sits on the Asian bank directly below the first Bosphorus bridge. Because it was built as a summer house and a lodging for visiting royals, it feels lighter than the state palaces on the European side.

Quick facts

History in brief

The site once held an earlier wooden palace that was lost to fire. In 1861 Sultan Abdulaziz ordered the current building from the architects Sarkis and Agop Balyan, and work was completed in 1865. The guest book reads like a roll call of 19th-century royalty. Empress Eugenie of France stayed in 1869 while travelling to the opening of the Suez Canal, and both the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph and the Shah of Persia came as well. Sultan Abdulhamid II, after losing his throne, lived out his final years here under guard and died in the palace in 1918.

Highlights

• The pool hall, a reception room with a marble fountain at its centre, designed to cool the palace in the summer heat.
• The grand staircase, with two flights rising beneath painted ceilings in sea themes, a sign of Abdulaziz's interest in the navy.
• Egyptian straw matting laid on the floors to keep the rooms cool, with Hereke carpets on top.
• Crystal chandeliers from Bohemia, along with French clocks and vases, in nearly every room.
• Two sea kiosks, small marble pavilions right at the water, one serving the men's quarters and the other the Harem, both looking towards the bridge.
• Terraced gardens rising behind the palace, planted with magnolias and set around a big pool.

When to go

Choose a weekday and arrive in the early afternoon, once the morning school groups have gone. It is closed on Mondays. In summer the gardens give shade and the sea breeze makes this one of the cooler spots for an hour's visit. In winter the light on the waterfront facade looks lovely when seen from a boat.

Our Istanbul Asian Side Private Tour with Beylerbeyi Palace is a full eight-hour day on the Asian side with pick-up from your hotel, covering Beylerbeyi, Camlica Hill, colourful Kuzguncuk and historic Uskudar. To see the palace only from the outside, the 2-Hour Private Bosphorus Yacht Cruise goes close past its facade and sea kiosks.

Practical tips

• Rules on taking photos indoors change; do what the staff and the signs at the entrance tell you.
• You buy tickets and enter from the road, not from the waterfront.
• Kuzguncuk, an attractive village of wooden houses, is 15 minutes on foot south along the shore. Cengelkoy and its tea gardens are a short ride north.
• Official events can close the palace with little warning, so check the National Palaces website on the day you go.
• Turkish citizens can use the Museum Card here. Foreign visitors should confirm the current pass rules before counting on one.

Beylerbeyi vs Dolmabahce: the difference in practice

The same family of architects designed both palaces, ten years apart, and people often mix them up. Dolmabahce has around 285 rooms and a ceremonial hall meant to impress ambassadors; visitors move through slowly in a line, and it takes two to three hours. At Beylerbeyi fewer than 30 main rooms are open, and an hour is enough to see them without being rushed along. Its decoration is lighter, with pastel ceilings and sea motifs, and the rooms look out onto the water. If Dolmabahce is behind you and you want a calmer second palace, choose Beylerbeyi. If you can fit in just one, Dolmabahce's grandeur is harder to match.

Find more sights on the Asian side on our Istanbul destination page.

Frequently Asked Questions