Pera Museum

Most visitors to Pera Museum have one picture in mind: Osman Hamdi Bey's The Tortoise Trainer, which shows an old man in a red robe using a flute to train a group of tortoises. It may well be the most famous painting in Turkey, and you will find it in a former hotel just off Istiklal Avenue. In 2026 a full-price ticket is 450 TL.

Quick facts

From hotel to museum

The Bristol Hotel opened in this building in 1893. It was one of several hotels catering to travellers who arrived in Pera, the European district of Istanbul in the late Ottoman period. In 2005 the Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation reopened it as a museum after restoration. The front of the building survived, while the interior was rebuilt into modern galleries on several floors.

The foundation's own collections moved in, and an active schedule of international exhibitions soon followed. For many Istanbul residents those temporary shows are what keep them coming back.

Collections

• Orientalist painting. The permanent galleries show the Ottoman Empire as European and Ottoman artists saw it from the 17th century to the early 20th: ambassadors in portrait, Bosphorus scenes and everyday life. The Tortoise Trainer is the highlight, and there are more works by Osman Hamdi Bey as well.
• Anatolian weights and measures. Thousands of pieces, ranging from Hittite weights to Ottoman scales, displayed in a way that is much more engaging than the topic suggests.
• Kutahya ceramics. Tiles, plates, jugs and coffee cups made in Kutahya, the less famous competitor of Iznik, many decorated in strong yellows and greens.
• Temporary shows. Generally two or three running together on the upper floors, changing several times each year.

About The Tortoise Trainer

Osman Hamdi Bey worked as a painter and an archaeologist, and he founded the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, so he holds an unusual position in the history of both art and science. The painting dates from 1906. The old man in the red robe is the artist himself, shown in a tiled room inside an old building, with tortoises on the floor at his feet. A common reading is that it gently mocks the slow progress of reform in the late Ottoman state, and his own efforts to push that reform forward.

Expect a smaller canvas than you imagine. The museum's foundation acquired it in 2004, paying what was then a record for a Turkish painting. Take time over the details: the wall tiles, the little drum on his back and the light falling from the high window. The rooms around it hold more of his paintings and works by artists of his generation.

When to go

The nicest time is Friday evening, when opening runs to 22:00: the galleries are calmer, and Asmalimescit is close by for dinner afterwards. Weekend afternoons see the biggest crowds, and on Wednesdays students arrive in numbers because they get in free. When a major exhibition has just opened, there may be a line at the entrance.

One thing to check first: The Tortoise Trainer is occasionally loaned out or moved for an exhibition. If you are coming mainly to see it, make sure the museum's website lists it as on display.

With a private guide, our Istanbul Modern Art Tour: Galleries & Creative Districts covers Pera Museum, Istanbul Modern and Arter in four to five hours, priced from US$100. After dark, the Istanbul Private Night Tour: Old City, Taksim and Istiklal explores this same area of Beyoglu on foot. You will find more options on our Istanbul tours page.

Tips

• If Istiklal feels too busy, the ground-floor museum café is a calm spot for a break.
• Leave large bags at the cloakroom.
• Whether you may take photos depends on the exhibition; in the permanent collection it is normally allowed as long as you do not use flash.
• From the upper station of the Tunel funicular, walk downhill along Mesrutiyet Caddesi for five minutes.
• Galata Tower is roughly ten minutes away on foot, so the two fit well together.

Our Istanbul destination page covers other sights close by.

Frequently Asked Questions