Sabanaci Museum and Domabache Palace

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6-4-08 Sakip Sabanaci Museum, Dolmabahce Palace
Sakip Sabanaci museum used to be a house for the Sabanaci family. This is part of the same family that started the school for spastic children. There was a time in the past when Turkish people invested their money in gold. Mr. Sabanaci decided to invest his money in pieces of artwork instead of gold. Over the years his collection of artwork grew into a magnificent one of a kind collection.

He decided before his death that he wanted to donate his house and art collection to Turkey so it would be turned into a museum. He said that it would be ashamed for the collection that he and his family enjoyed so much to be split apart among his relatives.

The best collection of calligraphy in the world can be seen here. This collection has been on display at the Louvre in Pairs. Harvard offers a course in Ottoman art that is based off of the collection that can be found in this museum.

A lunch time meeting and presentation was given to the Tesvikiye Rotary club.

We visited Domabahce Palace after lunch. This palace was more like what I pictured as a palace as compared to the Topkapi palace we visited earlier. It was decorated in more western styles. The pictures speak for themselves but don’t do the palace justice .Everything was on a grand scale and VERY ELEGANT.

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Photos

The Museum
This used to be the house of the Sabanaci family. Upon his death it was donated to Turkey and turned into a museum

Coffee break
Only a small part of the museum was open so we had tea and coffee while we waited for the meeting

The front yard
The front yard was ....

At the place where our meeting was
This was a side room at the place we had the Rotary meeting... I liked the pic

Domabalche Palace
We meet here every morning and haven't gotten the chance to go in. It was exciting to finally see what was behind the walls

The guard
He's real! Guards are on post through out and around the palace. They don't move.

Attaturk
This is the bed that he was laying in when he died. This place is very sacred for Turkish people

Comments

[heather]

hi
The palace was fabulous!!! Incredible. I love the pictures!!! I had to take three close looks at the guard. I can't believe he is real.