Hıdiv Kasrı (Khedive's Palace)

Palace · BeykozIstanbul,Türkiye

An Art Nouveau summer palace on a wooded Bosphorus crest, built around 1907 for the last khedive of Egypt, its hall domed in stained glass.

Hıdiv Kasrı is a full-blooded Art Nouveau summer palace on a wooded crest above Çubuklu, in Beykoz, softened with Italian Renaissance and Ottoman touches. A tall square tower rises over the trees, a landmark you can pick out from the far European shore. Step inside and the house turns theatrical: a marble fountain stands at the centre of the hall, ringed by columns under a dome of stained glass. Crescent-shaped porticoes open its faces to the light. Abbas Hilmi II, the last khedive of Egypt, wanted a retreat in the Ottoman capital, and the architects Antonio Lasciac and Delfo Seminati finished it for him around 1907. Outside, one of the city's largest rose gardens and old magnolias frame the water view, and the grove fills with tulips each spring. Left to decay after the khedive's fall, the palace was rescued by Çelik Gülersoy's touring club and reopened in 1984. The city runs it now, so the inside is a restaurant rather than a museum: rooms shut whenever a wedding or a dinner takes them. The great hall and the salons are otherwise open to anyone who walks in.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Get close to the facade, not just the tower — Everyone frames the palace whole; the real Art Nouveau lives up close, in the curved iron balconies, coloured glass and carved stone flowers most people walk straight past.
Come on a weekday morning — Weekends fill with long breakfast tables and wedding shoots. Arrive early midweek and the roses, lawns and quiet are nearly yours.
No rail line comes up here — the house sits in a grove on a crest above Çubuklu, and the last stretch up from the water is a climb through trees.

Things to do

1
Watch the light turn in the central hall
Stand beneath the stained-glass dome and stay put for a while. The coloured light shifts as the sun moves, sliding off the marble and travelling across the floor. Walk the ring of columns while you wait, and look up at the capitals: they are carved as fruit and flowers, not the usual leaves.
2
Take the garden's edge for the strait
Walk out to the garden's outer edge, where the hill falls away toward Çubuklu and the lawn ends in open air. Below you the Bosphorus bends between its two shores, tankers and ferries sliding past. Come near the end of the afternoon, when the light goes gold and the far European hills soften into haze.
3
Walk the grove in bloom
In spring, follow the grove's paths when the beds are planted for tulip season and the old magnolias are flowering. In early summer, let your nose lead you to the rose garden, one of the largest in the city. Then settle in for a long breakfast at a garden table, the way Istanbul families do on weekends.