Castles in Istanbul

Topkapi Palace
Galata Tower
Yedikule Fortress
Walls of Istanbul

Topkapi Palace

My visit to the Topkapi Palace was a part of a tour, which I undertook during my travel to Istanbul. If I have to describe it in one word, I shall use “speedy” for sure; if I need to add a word more, my choice will stop on “amazing”, undeniably. The emotions that I felt right after it was over were a pair again, the walk was rather exhausting but completely satisfying.

The palace is a notable part of UNESCO World Heritage and usually the entire day is wanted to be seen thoroughly because of the enormous dimensions and complexity of the site. The monument itself is actually an ensemble of numerous inner monuments. If you are not an extremist tourist, as I came to be, and wish to taste its sights and treasures with delight in comfort and patience, dedicate your day to it.

In few words, what the palace layout resembles, these are four basic courtyards in a suite order, separated from one another by cross walls while all are surrounded by the higher outer ones. The main entrance is through the Imperial Gate, followed by the rest two gates that open passages from the previous to the succeeding courts.

In every one of them, the palace buildings of various ranges, functions, locations and styles, masterpieces to the last one and more exquisite than the other, stand either as enclosed parts of the walls or detached in exquisite single structures. The most distinguished are the Imperial Council, the Harem, the Palace Kitchens, the numerous pavilions and more.

White stone-covered alleys in beautiful nets connect the buildings while green gardens divide the site in smaller vivid pictures. Most refined harmony romanticize the solemn scenery. Above all, the magnificent sea view to the Bosphorus and Golden Horn, revealed from the terraces of the innermost courtyard, completes the palace masterpiece into the divine pearl of the Empire.

The southern outermost walls of the Topkapi Palace that lead to the palace square and the main entrance gate.
Two towers from the Topkapi Palace walls fringe and Ishak Pasha Mosque to the right.
Part of the Topkapi Palace walls. Some of them date back to the times of the ancient Byzantion which acropolis used to stand at this site.
The massive structure of the Imperial Gate, the Topkapi Palace main entrance, encloses two rooms on each of its sides guarding the passage to the First Courtyard.
The lower walls enclose the part of the First Courtyard open for visitors of the Topkapi Palace while the larger rest of it spreads to the higher outermost walls. Behind these are the Gülhane Center, the Sirkeci Terminal shorelines and the terraced slopes to the Marmara Sea; behind those to the opposite side are the Imperial Mint, the Archaeology Museums and the Gülhane Park.
The Imperial Mint entrance from the First Courtyard. Together with the adjoining Hagia Irene it is of the few original structures that have remained until today.
The Salutation Gate controls the passage from the First to the Second Courtyard. Its two Byzantine-alike towers unlock the specualtion that it replicates the now destroyed Cannon Gate that once used to be the seaside entrance to the palace gardens from the Bosphorus and after which the Topkapi Palace received its present name.
The Imperial Council in the foreground with the Imperial Treasury hall eight domes partially seen to the right. To the left, the recondite Harem entrance just where its colonnade ends to begin the Halberdiers’ Dormitories one. The Tower of Justice in the background with retained base and lantern rebuilt in Palladian style, located between the two. The tallest palace structure and its landmark symbolises the sultan’s justice who used it for viewing pleasures.
Part of the spacious porch with Ottoman pillars and rococo facade of the Imperial Council, enclosing three halls in suite order with domed ceilings and interiors in the same style except the main one Ottoman decoration. While the chambers have multiple entrances from inside the Topkapi Palace and two open into the Second Courtyard, the grilled windows guard is an illusion.Down the end of the colonnade passage is the Death’s Door to the Imperial Stables courtyard housing the Privy Stables, Beşir Ağa’s Mosque and Bath, and the Halberdiers’ Dormitories, constructed by wood with their own courtyard, baths and mosque, as well as a pipe-room and other recreations.
The Second Courtyard portico colonnade which three doors alongside, the Imperial commissariat or Lower kitchen one, the Imperial kitchen and the Confectionery kitchen ones, open entrance to the Palace Kitchens section.
Part of the long facade with tall chimneys and the internal street on which the ten Palace Kitchens buildings are organized, incl. the Imperial kitchen, Palace school t:Enderûn, Women’s quarters t:Harem, Outer service of the palace t:Birûn, kitchens, Beverages kitchen, Confectionery kitchen, Creamery, storerooms, rooms for the cooks as well as dormitories, baths and a mosque for the employees.
One of the wide doomed ceilings with octagonal openings from which the Palace Kitchens twenty chimneys rise in two rows.
The internal structure of the Palace Kitchens.
The Palace Kitchens interior, part of it preserved and other used for exhibiting of kitchen utensils, silver gifts, porcelain and celadon collections.
The underground Byzantine Cistern in the Second Courtyard of the Topkapi Palace. Together with the Palace Basilica remains, excavated in front of the Imperial Treasury hall, they were once part of the Byzantine acropolis.
The Felicity Gate entrance into the Third Courtyard, the border between the Inner and Outer Courts. Its domed structure with rococo external and baroque internal decorations represents the Sultan’s presence in the palace who only appeared before it for special ceremonies, sitting on his Bayram throne on the Second Courtyard square. On either side of the colonnaded passage were the Eunuchs’ Quarters as well as the Palace School rooms. The stone before it marks the Prophet Muhammad’s banner unfurling place.
The Audience Chamber with the Sultan’s backside door. A domed Ottoman kiosk surrounded by a colonnade, screening the Third Courtyard view of the Topkapi Palace and housing the Throne Room with the canopied throne and two adjacent rooms. Two other visitors’ doors in front of the main facade, the Main one and the Pişkeş Gate t:Pişkeş Kapısı for gifts, placed before the window between them, open into the porch behind the Felicity Gate. On the background to the left, the Palace School.
The Conqueror’s Pavilion, housing the Imperial Treasury in its four suite halls, opening under a colonnade portico into the Third Courtyard garden; on the same floor, a Bosphorus-side loggia and service rooms on the lower. One of the oldest palace buildings once hosted three rooms, two with domes, used as apartments and to store art works and treasure, a terrace with Marmara Sea view porch, a basement with a Byzantine baptistery found and adjoining Turkish bath. To the right, the vaulted Expeditionary Force Dormitory with its arcade, exhibiting the Imperial Wardrobe Collection.
Ahmed III’s Library next to the Audience Chamber in the Third Courtyard centre, built on the Havuzlu Kiosk foundations and seen from the Imperial Treasury which colonnade was probably of the former. The Neo-classical structure on a low basement against moisture resembles a Greek cross with a domed central hall, three vaulted bays and an arcade porch with stairs on either side as a fourth arm. The Sultan’s corner in the entrance-opposing niche for reading its books and manuscripts, now in the Palace Library inside the Ağas’ Mosque behind; the largest and of the oldest buildings in the palace, aligned diagonally to face Mecca with the minbar. The Royal Pages’ Dormitory with the Imperial Portraits Collection, to its right.
The Pages’ Dormitories, housing the Miniature and Portrait Gallery on the garden back, with the two collections on each of its floors and part of the first shared by the Palace Library, and the Museum Directorate Office to the right. Between the two buildings, one of the free way passages from the Third Courtyard into the innermost Fourth Courtyard of the Topkapi Palace as they are not separated originally. The Sacred Relics in the Privy Chamber and the arcade Holy Mantle Pavilion to the left, detached by the other one.
Wed, enjoying the Marmara Sea from the upper terrace bottom of the most romantic of all Fourth Courtyard; on its topmost end, the gilded Iftar Pavilion, the first Far East influenced Ottoman architecture faces the Golden Horn from the Marble Terrace. This Bosphorus side panorama rewards the Grand Kiosk to the left and the nearby Wardrobe Chamber. The last significant palace addition and Europeanized and Ottoman styles eclectic mixture, built on a former kiosk basement was used as an imperial reception and resting place, sometimes accommodating foreign guests. To the right, the Terrace Mosque in the same Empire style as the neighbouring furnishing. Beyond, a VIP-visited restaurant with the lower terrace view.
The white wooden Terrace Kiosk by the Fourth Courtyard Tulip Garden. A Rococo-styled belvedere with Main hall t:Divanhane, Prayer room t:Namaz Odası and Sweet Fruit Beverages room t:Şerbet Odası, used for rest and as a guest lodge. The masonry with archade openings in opposition connects it with the Head Tutor’s Tower to the right. To the left, resembling the Yerevan Kiosk, part of the Baghdad Kiosk central dome above the four-iwan plan, decorated with copies of tiles, taken from Second and Third Courtyards ceremonial buildings and kept with the Circumcision Room on the Marble terrace other side. The pavilion also bounds the upper terrace Tulip and Iftar Gardens. Louis XIV of France’s silver present adds adornment to this of the classical palace architecture last examples.
Part of the Yerevan Kiosk under the Tulip Garden trees to the left. A small pavilion, built by the Marble Terrace fountain pool together with the Baghdad Kiosk to celebrate victories but unlike the latter, used as the Privy Chamber library, it served for a religious retreat. To the right, the Head Tutor and Chief Physician’s shared residence and the Fourth Courtyard oldest structure with its multiple functions in time, a watch tower, the first court pharmacy and a drugs and medicine store, a music conservatory, used also for arms cleaning and housing now the Medical objects collection.
The so called Third Gate of the Topkapi Palace with one of the two Guard houses wings, connecting the innermost Fourth Courtyard with the outermost First Courtyard through the Fifth Place, part of the Outer Palace now in Gülhane Park.

Galata Tower

The glamorous sight of two lovably embracing structures, the mighty Genoese Galata Tower and the beautiful silhouette of a 30s residential building.
A panoramic view from Galata Tower to Golden Horn and the surrounding neighbourhood. Remains of Galata walls still stand incorporated among the buildings of Galata district.

Would you like to see both the tower and the princess in her place is precisely Galata. She has a lot to offer to help her remember always climbing on top of you and offering to share the transcendental sense of power over cosmopolitan city and over the sea, kissed his feet. My meeting with this sound and exquisite medieval creature happen at the outset of my travel to Istanbul. Of the myriad treasures that I have yet to an outside there, it took a remarkable proportion of time allowed for the tour, partly because of my inherent weakness of the castle and therefore still missing Training without, however, let me drop unfortunately.

Crossing the bridge and diving into the busy district of the historic district of Galata, climbing up on his intuitive path through the many winding streets, most unexpectedly appeared before me and the array itself tower. Located in the center of a small square one tightly surround the January residential buildings with typical European neighborhood that figure from its shadows and immersed in cold foot is almost impossible to be all covered with eyes. See you at the top, however, love to embrace the beauties of the 30, solar heat will bathe. You climb on it, your face will shine with excitement over the city, while you yourself are breathless to view.

Preserved in its original form almost without any modifications to this day, the tower was built by the Genoese during the expansion of their colony Constantinople across the Golden Horn in this Nordic part of town. Share of the fortification system of the citadel of Galata, it is located in the top edge of the site for eight centuries earlier Byzantine wooden facility served as a lighthouse. On the other side there was an earlier eponymous tower. The new is built of stone and the numerous troubles, catching it in ages, almost four meters thick walls and its nine levels have remained intact in the same length of time.

Conquered by the Ottoman Empire, it was used consistently for prison monitoring, alarm and fire and subsequent restoration of the dome, the interior and its input elements, only suffered more serious changes have taken several initiatives. Although the main street that leads directly to its northern part, the entrance of the tower is from the southwest, the direction of my preferred approach and is available in both wings of the marble staircase from the first restoration, when the same material from the island of Marmara are made within the door and ornamental inscription above it. The function of these steps before he performs a drawbridge.

Transition inside the tower put into a common space on two levels, the former main hall of the fort. Although lifts direct link to the upper floors, the journey is a maze from the outset because of the structure of the interior, but also because the way they are organized visits. Above him, in the intermediate part are typical Oriental café, in which the window opening onto the facade over the entrance has been observed the security garrison Genoese tavern and areas with stores in proposals which can be absorbed without being distracted by the sight out because the windows are narrow slits of loopholes or similar missing at all.

Ever, there is derives stone staircase built into the wall thickness. After climbing it continues today on wooden pillars, curved space on the floor, preserved and restored contact between the kitchen serving establishments and the second hour of the upper level where stop elevators. You get there, the mask in sight falls, Istanbul spread freely around you, and you are rewarded with additional choice of places to relish the view. The immediate outlet is a cafe restaurant, located in the crown of the tower, the most comprehensive site with the large windows, crowned by a popular night club shows.

It occupies a narrow ring at the top behind the windows in deep arched vaults, whose brick structure is visible in its original form. Restaurants are open for visits after recent restorations gone Republican in a time when wood interior has been replaced with concrete and original dome of lead and wood was reconstructed in its authentic form with a conical shape, having long been missed at all. It is housed underneath round club space located legendary Warehouse Monitoring cosmopolitan city and caress it seas that unforgettable view from the creation of Galata today.

Yedikule Fortress

Yedikule Fortress

Yedikule Fortress is remarkable as it was and my meeting with her during my travel to Istanbul. Compact, moderate and symmetrical in its structure, it is also impressive, watching her in awe of the towers from below it – great. This actually means and its name, the Castle of Seven Towers. It is to be able to touch their gorgeous legs, undertook his daring venture to walk away half way from the historic center, proceed in its search and improvised to take risk to spend the night before its locked gates in a strange and suspicious neighborhood on the edge Old Town, looked at the lunar waters of Marmara Sea. The excitement to discover the ruler of the Golden Gate in all its brilliance in the fallen dusk after a long search passing worth all my efforts, reward me luck for the test with random transport me back in the safe along with satisfied gnezdentse load of successful adventure.

In a fortress-term star-shape formed by five of its main towers at the tops of each of the protruding corners, joined together by walls dvusegmentni concluded in the middle inside the fort. Four of these areas are adjacent deaf or pseudo triangular-shaped towers. Another two similar semi-cylindrical in the vicinity until the fifth main wall whose center ovenchava triumphant Golden gate framed by two solid rectangular bastions. With all these elements their own in which number hektagonalnite towers, marking its edges, it is part of the legendary Teodosieva walls, the outer triple ring surrounds and once defended Constantinople. According to some, the Golden Gate is an authentic part of their design, while others perceive her emergence as a freestanding arch, later integrated into them. Whatever the truth, Yedikul grew up as a fortress, additions to the walls of Theodosius around existing triumphal gate.

The fortress was repeatedly altering, but kept relics from the times of Byzantium in its outer shell, the main gate and the four towers flanked January, but as we know it today, with the upgrade of the three round towers and a small opening in its internal walls, is the work of Ottoman Empire. Golden Gate is performed mainly ceremonial function but simultaneously demonstrated its protective role, resisting several sieges. She was further strengthened in the peculiar fortification, shelter and served as defense or warehouse stores, and subsequently was used for treasury, archives and prison. In its center were built small cult building and a fountain around which the residential district of the garrison, later transformed into the girls’ school, and now all saorezhenie a museum. Besides impressive impressive stature, Yedikul is interesting with history and symbolism of the building their combined existence in each of the two major parties The settlement, the image of Constantinople, which opens to the world and the heart of Istanbul, kept inside her.

The nocturnal silhouette of Yedikule Fortress. The golden part to the left with the Yedikule Gate between some of the seven towers and the North Pylon of the Golden Gate to the right.
The Ahmet III Tower close to the Yedikule Gate taken from outside the Theodosian Walls.
The North Tower of Yedikule stands between the Ahmet III Tower and the East Tower which is the one opposite to the Golden Gate in the structure of the fortress.
One of the Yedikule Fortress walls connecting the Ahmet III Tower and the North Tower. It is similar in length and structure to the other three inner ones.
The back entrance to the fortress enclosure by the side of the East Tower.

Walls of Istanbul

Theodosian Walls

Yedikule Gate

Belgrade Gate

The Sea Walls along Golden Horn and Marmara Sea

Golden Horn Wall

A monumental tower of the sea walls of Constantinople.
Part of the sea walls with the unique marble window-frames.
Another part of the sea walls of Constantinople.