Beylerbeyi Palace
The Beylerbeyi Palace ( Turkish Beylerbeyi Sarayı ) is one of the most important palaces in Istanbul . It's on the Asian side of the city, just north under the July 15th Bridge over the Bosphorus. Sultan Abdülaziz had the palace built between 1861 and 1865 by the Armenian architect Sarkis Balyan .
Sultan Abdülaziz loved the place because he was a great lover of the wild sea. In fact, the northwest wind Poyraz , which is called Meltemi further south in the Aegean Sea , hits here with all its might. Together with the north current of the Bosporus , the wind prevented the colonization of the Black Sea until Jason managed to sail north with his Argonauts (legend of the Golden Fleece ). Before it was built, there was a wooden palace here, which Sultan Mahmut I had built in the 16th century.
The terrace gardens of the palace were formerly called Istavroz Bahçeleri because the emperor Constantine the Great had a large cross erected here to declaim his conversion to Christianity . Istavroz is derived from the Greek word Stavrós (σταυρός), "cross". A few decades ago, the ruins of a Byzantine church could be seen not far from the palace.
The palace served as a summer residence for the sultan and his family. Famous guests were u. a. The French Empress Eugénie de Montijo , wife of Napoleon III. , Empress Elisabeth , the King of Montenegro and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi . Sultan Abdülhamid II spent the last six years of his life here and died in this palace. Eugénie de Montijo was so overwhelmed by the palace's charm that on her return to Paris she had a copy of the window of her room in the palace made for her bedroom in the Tuileries.
The Beylerbeyi Palace was the site of the first World Women's Conference in 1935, hosted by Kemal Ataturk .
Coordinates: 41 ° 2 ′ 34 ″ N , 29 ° 2 ′ 24 ″ E