The Maslak Pavilions sit in a wooded park on Büyükdere Caddesi, the main road linking Levent and Ayazağa, where the İstinye and Tarabya junctions meet; they take their name from Maslak. Their particular interest is what happened in them: Abdülhamid II spent his years as a prince here with his family, and it was here that he received the news that Murad V had been deposed and that he was to take the Ottoman throne.
Building on the ground goes back to the reign of Mahmud II, when the area served the sultans as a hunting and resting ground, but the form in which the pavilions survive is largely the work of Abdülaziz in the 1860s. Abdülhamid bought up the surrounding land and turned the place into a farm, known during his reign as the Imperial Farms of Maslak. Between 1937 and 1982 the buildings served a very different purpose, as a military preventorium for people at risk of tuberculosis. After restoration in 1984 the complex opened as a museum under the National Palaces administration.
Set in a copse inside the forest are the Kasr-ı Hümayun, the Mabeyn-i Hümayun with its conservatory, the Çadır Köşk or tent pavilion, and the Pasha's Quarters. Built on the plan type of the traditional Turkish house, they are good examples of late nineteenth-century Ottoman timber domestic building and decoration, and they look out towards the point where the Bosphorus opens to the Black Sea.
The Kasr-ı Hümayun has been restored from documents, memoirs and old photographs and is open as a house museum. The Mabeyn-i Hümayun with its conservatory and the Çadır Köşk with its garden were restored in the same spirit and hold cafes; the conservatory's camellias flower in winter. The grounds are also used for receptions. İETT buses and minibuses stop nearby.
Getting there
- Access
- Reached by İETT buses and by minibus.
When to go
- Climate
- Across İstanbul as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.8 °C in January to 24.7 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (99 mm) and lightest in July (22 mm). Long-term means for 1950-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
Visiting hours
- Hours
- 09:00 - 17:00
