Back in Istanbul, Oscar

        Merhaba, we are back in Istanbul after a delightful time in Ankara. Today we visited Dolmabahçe Palace and Rumeli Hisarı, also known as the Fortress of Europe in English. 

In 1843, as the Ottoman Empire was in decline, Sultan Abdulmecid ordered the Dolmabahçe Palace built. Thirteen years later when the construction was finished, the Sultan and Ottoman administration left the Topkapı Palace to take up residence in the Dolmabahçe Palace.

The Palace features imports and gifts from all over the world including pieces we saw from Britain, China, Japan, France, and many others. 

The construction cost the Ottoman Empire the equivalent of around two billion U.S. dollars today. This amounted to 25% of yearly tax revenue, a stunning cost for a shaky Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire also relied on loans from Europe to finance the building. We were encouraged to think about why this palace was built and for who it was trying to convince. As the Ottoman Empire was in decline it certainly didn’t make financial sense.

To enter the Palace we had to wear plastic around our shoes to protect the old carpets. While inside we made our way around the Palace marveling at the decor and style, including an abundance of gold. The Palace sits right along the Bosphorus giving Sultans a nice view of the water.

The Palace is also notable in Turkey’s history as the part-time residence of Ataturk and where Ataturk passed away. The Palace was the biggest in Turkey all the way up until a few years ago when Erdogan’s Presidential Complex or Palace was built in Ankara.

After the tour of the Palace, we made a bonus stop at an art museum inside the Palace complex. The Palace hosts 600 paintings. If you have a 19th-century Ottoman painting in mind, odds are we saw it.

Next, we went to the Fortress of Europe. The fort was built in 1452 by Mehmet the Conqueror, a year before the conquest of Constantinople. The construction of the fort impressively only took three months to finish. On the other side of the Bosphorus, there is a sibling fort, built around 50 years earlier.

The Forts are along the narrowest part of the Bosphorus allowing the Ottomans to create a choke point stopping supplies and goods from getting into Constantinople where Byzantines were holding out. The fort offered us a very nice view of the Bosphorus.