Indulge in the Ciragan Palace Hotel

Istanbul’s lovely residential district of Besiktas is the location of Turkey’s only Imperial Palace which has become a 5 star hotel.

Ciragan Palace Hotel

That’s one of the places in Istanbul where visiting heads of State or other celebrities hang their hat, but that doesn’t mean that mere mortals can’t enjoy the delights of this unique hotel too.

All you need is some $20 to spare and you can sit on the hotel’s Gazebo Lounge and Restaurant and enjoy a beautifully presented café latte, complete with chocolates. Of course, you can stay there too, but that will set you back a lot more. Depending on the season, a single room costs about €500, just to give you an idea.

What the Ciragan is about

Just as  the Four Seasons Hotel in Sultanahmed was a real prison, the Ciragan Hotel, which belongs to the Kempinski group, was a real palace. It was built by Sultan Abdulaziz between 1863 and 1867. The roof and interior walls were made of wood, the outer walls of multi colored marble.

This structure proved to be fatal for the palace which has a somewhat chilling  history.

Sultan Abdulaziz was found dead in his palace on May 30^th 1876, shortly after he had been dethroned.

In 1910 a great fire destroyed the palace, leaving only the outer wall standing.

The ruin was subsequently used as… a football stadium (!!) for local football club Besiktas.

In 1986 it was bought by a Japanese consortium and transformed into a hotel which received a lot of criticism as apparently it paid no heed to its history and opted for a quite garish décor.

That changed in 2007, when the Kempinski group yet gain renovated the hotel and restored it to its original features and that’s what you can admire today.

Located about 2 miles north of Dolmabace Palace, Ciragan sits directly on the shore of the European side of the Bosporus overlooking that fascinating stretch of water.

The hotel itself consists of two parts; rooms, suites and function rooms in the palace itself and a modern part, yet in exactly the same style, next to it.

Between the two stretch wonderful gardens graced with enormous wrought iron gates and a promenade along the water front.

Gates in the hotel garden and view across the Bosporus

Needless to say that the hotel offers all amenities but best of all is the infinity pool, open only to hotel guest, which, once you are in it, gives you the illusion that you are swimming straight out into the Bosporus.

A few broad marble steps further up is the Gazebo which invites to sit under white umbrellas, sip the aforementioned latte or any other drink, have a snack or cake and just enjoy the view, the boat traffic on the Bosporus and the Asian side of Istanbul on the opposite shore.

Location

The hotel’s address is:

Ciragan Caddesi, 34

34349 Istanbul/ Besiktas

or you might want to visit their website, www.kempinski.com/en/istanbul/pages/welcome.aspx

You can easily combine a visit to the hotel with a stroll around the district of Besiktas with leafy hills, cobbled side streets featuring shops and art galleries leading to the water and docks where ferries depart for tours on the Bosporus.

Photographs are author’s own