The Ottoman capital: the back story

About The Ottoman capital: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Istanbul Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Mehmed II, “the Conqueror”, repopulated the city, built Topkapı Palace and the Grand Bazaar, and made Istanbul the capital of an empire that stretched from Hungary to Arabia. Under Süleyman the Magnificent, the architect Sinan gave the skyline its great mosques.

Mehmed the Conqueror

After 1453 Mehmed II brought in settlers from across his lands, Muslims, Christians and Jews, and rebuilt the city as his capital. Topkapı Palace rose on the old acropolis, the covered Grand Bazaar became the commercial heart, and the Fatih Mosque was built on one of the seven hills.

Süleyman and Sinan

Süleyman the Magnificent (reigned 1520–1566) ruled at the height of the empire’s power. His chief architect, Mimar Sinan, designed the Süleymaniye Mosque, completed in 1557, and many mosques, bathhouses, schools and bridges across the city; the tiled Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Paşa complex are also his.

Sinan, the empire’s chief architect, is credited with more than 300 buildings.

The Blue Mosque and the Tulip Era

Sultan Ahmed I built the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Blue Mosque, between 1609 and 1616, facing Hagia Sophia across the Hippodrome. In the early 18th century, the so-called Tulip Era brought gardens, fountains and pavilions, and a passion for tulips that the city still celebrates every April.

The Bosphorus palaces

In the 19th century the sultans moved from Topkapı to European-style palaces on the Bosphorus: Dolmabahçe, completed in 1856, then Beylerbeyi and Çırağan. Wooden yalıs, the summer mansions of the elite, lined both shores.

Trains and grand hotels

The Orient Express from Paris reached Istanbul in the late 19th century, and Sirkeci station opened in 1890. Across the Golden Horn, Pera, today’s Beyoğlu, became a European-style quarter of embassies, arcades and grand hotels such as the Pera Palace, opened in 1892.

The Ottoman city today

Topkapı, the imperial mosques, the bazaars, the hammams and the Bosphorus palaces are all open to visitors, and the old city still follows the plan of the Ottoman capital.

Our advice: see Topkapı on a weekday morning, the Süleymaniye at the end of an afternoon, and Dolmabahçe on a separate day with a Bosphorus ferry. Have a hammam in one of Sinan’s bathhouses, and you will have seen the Ottoman city at its finest.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The Ottoman capital: the back story before you go.