‘The past is a foreign country.’ L. P. Hartley
I grew up with stories of my grandmother growing up in the harem of Yıldız Palace. Being a young girl growing up in a secular, modern Republic, I could never fully grasp how it must have felt like growing up in a harem and how the ‘world’ had changed so drastically. The whole story used to sound like a fairy tale to me.
But, with an adult eye, I was able to dig into family photos, read through historical books and dive in the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul to put the pieces of the puzzle together and I finally wrote down my grandmother’s story from the war torn Caucasia to the Ottoman Harem and then to modern Turkey.
Recently I learnt that the Yıldız Palace opened its doors after a long restoration to the public in august 2024. I was especially interested in seeing the harem chamber where my grandmother and her sister lived with their mother. I know from my mom’s memories that my grandmother never enjoyed living in the confined world of the harem which felt like captivity. We know from history that harem women were not allowed to travel freely in the city and lived in a completely isolated world. My grandmother’s sister Nevrestan Osmanoğlu who had to leave her home country for exile in 1924 after the declaration of Turkish Republic with her husband Prince Ahmet Nihad and the rest of the Ottoman Dynasty says in her memories that she was able to discover Istanbul freely only after she returned to her home country in the 1950s.
I rushed to see the restored Yıldız Palace and it has been a delight to visit. Yıldız Palace consists of a large complex of many chalets that drew their inspiration from Swiss Chalets of 19th century. The palace is in fact a creation of one of the last Ottoman rulers Abdulhamid II who favoured to live here away from all the other palaces along the Bosphorus. The original palace complex spread in a much larger area that contains the land of current Yıldız University, Yıldız Park and the military in Yıldız. Yıldız Palace came to a halt with the dethroning of Abdülhamid II in 1909 and has disappeared from public eye for over a century.
Now, it reopens its doors this time to the public after 102 years. I was impressed by the design of buildings and their interiors which are extremely humble but very elegant. There is no flamboyance, no exaggeration. There is a sense of tranquility in its gardens and interiors. The restoration is exquisite. Especially the library is a delight to be in.
Yıldız Palace was famous with its ceramics made in its factory which is still producing ceramics today. The palace displays a rich collection of its historical ceramics made and used by the Ottoman family.
Unfortunately, the harem is not open to the public yet. But, I shall definitely revisit when it opens to see where my grandmother and her sister were raised in order to imagine what it must have felt like living there as young girls with dreams and aspirations.
We owe some of the buildings in this beautiful palace complex to the Italian architect Raimondo D’aronco who is definitely a topic for another article.
So do yourself a favour and visit one of the last homes of the Ottoman rulers and their families and witness a world that has vanished but is there with their buildings, ornaments, artistic details and gardens to remind us of another world and another time and then rest in the cafe in its tranquil garden away from the chaos of modern İstanbul and visit its shop that hosts one of the refined examples of Yıldız Palace ceramics factory which is the oldest running ceramics factory in the country.
Note: visit mahandogrusoz.net/two-ottoman-women-from-the-history-of-my-family-nevrestan-osmanoglu-and-mrs-nezihe/ for my grandmother’s story in the Yıldız Palace’s harem.
