Topkapi Palace

The order

Mehmed the Conqueror ordered it six years after the conquest

Construction, ordered by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, began in 1459, six years after the conquest of Constantinople. It was first called the New Palace. The name Topkapı, meaning Cannon Gate, came in the 19th century.

The seat

It was the empire's administrative centre until Dolmabahçe Palace

From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1853, it served as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire. Leading state officials, including the Grand Vizier, held meetings in the Imperial Council building. In 1856 Sultan Abdulmejid I decided to move the court to Dolmabahçe.

Courtyards

Four courtyards and high walls kept the sultan's family secluded

The palace is a complex of low buildings around courtyards, divided into four main courtyards and the harem. Few of the buildings exceed two stories. Access was restricted by high walls and controlled with gates. One of the central tenets was the observation of silence in the inner courtyards.

The harem

Hurrem Sultan moved the harem into the palace after a fire

After a great fire destroyed the Old Palace in 1541, Hurrem Sultan decided to move the Imperial Harem permanently to Topkapı. This broke with custom: Mehmed the Conqueror had decreed that no women could reside where government affairs were conducted. The harem came to contain more than 400 rooms.

400or more rooms in the expanded harem

A museum

A decree of April 3, 1924 turned the palace into a museum

After the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, a government decree dated April 3, 1924 transformed Topkapı into a museum. In the treasury, the Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapi Dagger are on display. The diamond is set in silver and surrounded in two ranks with 49 cut diamonds.

49cut diamonds around the Spoonmaker's Diamond