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    Palais de Topkapı

    Location » Palais de Topkapı appears in 2 issues.

    Topkapı Palace is a palace in Istanbul, Turkey.

    Short summary describing this location.

    Palais de Topkapı last edited by fesak on 12/04/21 06:17AM View full history

    From 1465 to 1853, it was the main and official city residence of the Ottoman Sultan. The palace is built on the site of the acropolis of ancient Byzantium. It overlooks the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Sea of ​​Marmara. The name “Topkapı Sarayı” literally means “palace of the cannon gate”, after the name of a nearby gate that has now disappeared. It covers 700,000 m2 (70 ha), and is surrounded by five kilometers of ramparts.

    Construction began in 1459, under Sultan Mehmed II, conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. Subsequently, the imperial palace underwent many expansions: the construction of the harem during the sixteenth century, or the modifications after the earthquake of 1509 and the fire of 1665. The palace is an architectural complex made up of four main courtyards and many annex buildings. At the height of its existence as an imperial residence, it housed over 4,000 people and spanned an even larger area.

    The Topkapı Palace gradually lost its importance from the end of the 17th century, when the sultans preferred a new palace to it, along the Bosphorus. In 1853, Sultan Abdülmecid I decided to move his court to Dolmabahçe Palace, the city's first European-style palace, whose construction has just been completed. Some functions, like the imperial treasury, library, mosques and currency remain in Topkapı.

    After the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, the Topkapı Palace was transformed into a museum of the Ottoman era by decree of the new republican government of April 3, 1924. The Topkapı Palace Museum has since been placed under administration of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. While the palace has hundreds of rooms and chambers, only the most important are usually open to visitors. The complex is guarded by ministry officials as well as Turkish army guards. It offers many examples of Ottoman architecture and keeps important collections of porcelain, clothing, weapons, shields, armor, Ottoman miniatures, manuscripts of Islamic calligraphy and murals, as well as a permanent exhibition of treasure and jewelry from the Ottoman era.

    Topkapı Palace is listed among the monuments of the historical area of ​​Istanbul. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985, where it is described as "an incomparable set of buildings built over four centuries, unique for the architectural quality of its buildings as much as for their organization which reflects that of the Ottoman court ”.

    In 2018, it was the most visited museum in Turkey with 2,980,450 visitors.

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