Çırağan Palace

The land of the present-day palace belonged to Admiral Kilic Ali Pasha in the 16th century. Around 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the English ambassador, described the then Çırağan Palace as a place of astonishing size and lavish furnishings. Sultan Ahmet III gifted the site to his son-in-law, Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha of Nevsehir, who had a waterfront villa built there. It was here that the famous “Çırağan Light Festivals” took place, which gave the palace its name. In the early 19th century, the palace was demolished and rebuilt in 1805 under Sultan Selim III. Sultan Mahmud II later used the complex as a summer residence and had it splendidly reconstructed again. Under Sultan Abdülmecid I, another demolition and reconstruction followed, which was only completed in 1857 under Sultan Abdülaziz. He influenced the palace with an architectural style change towards Arabic. After a coup, Sultan Murat V was held in the palace until his death in 1904. Briefly, in 1909, it served as a parliament before being largely destroyed by fire in 1910. The ruin was handed over to the Istanbul municipality in 1946 and used as a building material depot and sports field. In 1987, a Japanese investor group acquired the property and converted it into a palace hotel, which underwent extensive renovation in 2007.

The Çırağan Palace is located in Istanbul, in the Marmara region, Turkey, at an elevation of approximately 14 meters above sea level, directly on the Bosphorus.

Today, the Çırağan Palace houses a luxurious hotel belonging to the Kempinski Hotel Group and is a member of “The Leading Hotels of the World.” Visitors will find a fully restored and modernized building that combines the splendor of past eras with contemporary comfort.

• Dolmabahçe Palace (residence), approx. 1.4 km away
• Beylerbeyi Palace (residence), approx. 2.0 km away
• Topkapı Palace (residence), approx. 4.5 km away
• Hagia Sophia (sacred building), approx. 5.1 km away