Hıdiv Kasrı (Khedive's Palace)

Palace · BeykozIstanbul, Turkey

Hıdiv Kasrı was raised by a ruler who governed Egypt yet chose to summer on a wooded hill above the Bosphorus. Abbas Hilmi II, the last khedive of Egypt, wanted a retreat in the Ottoman capital, and around 1907 the architects Antonio Lasciac and Delfo Seminati finished it for him. The result is unusual among Istanbul's palaces: full-blooded Art Nouveau, 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. The grove spreads across the crest above Çubuklu, in Beykoz. Step inside and the house turns theatrical: a marble fountain climbs the full height of the central hall to a stained-glass dome, ringed by columns with capitals carved in fruit and flowers. Crescent-shaped porticoes open its faces to the light. Outside, one of the city's largest rose gardens and old magnolias frame the water view. Left to decay after the khedive's fall, the palace was rescued by Çelik Gülersoy's touring club and reopened in 1984. Today the municipality runs it as a café and tea garden, and the grove fills with tulips each spring.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Walk past the café to the garden's edge — The finest strait view isn't from a table but from the lawn beyond, where the hill drops toward Çubuklu and ships thread the water below.
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.

Things to do

1
Look up in the central hall
Enter the central hall and stop beneath its dome, where a single jet of water climbs a marble column toward stained glass overhead. Walk a slow circle around the ring of stone columns and study the carved fruit and flowers of the capitals, watching the coloured light shift across the floor as the day turns.
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.