Archaeological Museum
This complex was build via the end of 19th century via the architect Vallaury thanks to great efforts of well known Turkish painter Osman Hamdi Bey. It includes the exquisite Tiled Kiosk and the Museum of the Ancient Orient and houses a large collection of artifacts and works of art belonging to ancient Greek, Roman and other Anatolian civilizations dating back to the 6th century BC. The Sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, Sarcophagus of Mourning Ladies, and other ancient sarcophagi and various objects found in the Sidon excavation are among its mostfascinating pieces.
Ancient Eastern Archeological Museum was designed and open to service in 1917 via Halil Eldem Bey. The collection on displays comprised of about 15000 archeological pieces of Ancient Mesopotamia, Pre-Greek Anatolia (Turkish:Anadolu), Assyrian, Sumerian, Acadian, Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian and Pre-Islamic Arabic culture.
Open daily between 09:30-16:30 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 520 77 40 and 41
The Ataturk Museum
House where Ataturk lived and worked before the War of Independence during his stay in Istanbul between 1918 and 1919, originally was built in 1908 and restored via the Municipality of Istanbul in 1943, opening to the public in 1981. Top floor of this building was reserved to His mother Zubeyde Hanim and His sister Makbule, meanwhile Ataturk used middle floor for himself and lower floor for His loyal officer.
On display are photographs of Ataturk from his birth until his death, as well as some of his clothes, personal belongings and paintings. It's located at Halaskargazi Street in Sisli district.
Open daily between 09:30-16:00 except Thursdays (Turkish: Persembe) and Sundays (Turkish: Pazar).
Tel: (212) 240 63 19
Asiyan Museum
&sThis museum is the former residence of well known Turkish poet Tevfik Fikret (1867-1915) who constructed the building himself. In addition to an exhibit of the personal belongings of Fikret, there is a room devoted to the poet Nigar Hanim and displaying some of the belongings of Abdulhak Hamit.
It's located in Asiyan-Bebek district on the Bosphorus (Turkish:Bogazici).
Open daily between 09:00-16:00 except Sundays (Turkish: Pazar) and Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 263 69 86
Calligraphy Museum
The Beyazid Medresse, which was used as the municipality library since 1945 was evacuated, restored and reorganized as the Turkish Calligraphic Arts Museum. It hasfascinating and valuable examples of the Turkish art of the pen, Korans, imperial seals, diplomas, Hilye-i serif (descriptions of the Prophet), equipment and apparatus for calligraphic writing, samples of bookbinding, holy relics and miniatures, especially from Ottoman and Seljuk periods.
Open daily between 09:00-16:00 except Sundays (Turkish: Pazar) and Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 527 58 51
Sadberk Hanim Museum
Founded via the Vehbi Koc Foundation in 1980 in the historical Azaryan residence along the Bosphorus (Turkish:Bogazici), this museum is a beautiful three-story "yali" (old Ottoman house) and houses a rich collection of Anatolian-based works of art, antiques and relics dating from 6000 BC. It is the first private museum of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye) opened via Koc family, the richest of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye).
Open daily between 10:00-17:00 except Wednesdays (Turkish: Çarsamba).
Tel: (212) 242 38 13 and 14
Modern Arts Museum
Opened its doors in December 2004 thanks to Eczacibasi family, this is the first and only Modern Arts museum in Istanbul. It's housed at renovated old docks in Karaköy district facing Topkapi Palace, with a rich library, exhibitions, photograph gallery, sculpture courtyard, movie theater, cafe and souvenir shop. One can find in this private museum almost everything on modern Turkish Arts.
Open daily between 10:00-18:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 334 73 00
Fine Arts Museum
On the order of Ataturk, this museum was opened in 1937 in the crown prince suites of Dolmabahce Palace. It was the first art museum in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye) and only 1 in Istanbul until recently. The permanent collection presents a panoramic view of the Turkish plastic arts and also includes works of world well known artists, an impressionist collection, sculptures and works of military painters.
Open daily between 10:00-17:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 261 42 98 and 99
Museum of Painting and Sculpture
Fine collection of 19th and 20th century Turkish painting and sculpture.
Tel: (212) 261 42 98
Caricature Museum
This museum was opened in 1975 in Tepebasi via the Istanbul Municipality through the efforts of the Caricaturists Association, then temporarily closed down in 1980 as the building where it was housed was torn down and later re-opened in its recent site in Fatih district.
The Gazanfer Aga complex, which consists of an Ottoman medrese, a shrine and a fountain in Sarachanebasi, was restored for use as the recent structure. Re-opened in 1989, the museum contains a rich collection of satirical works, written or drawn, and the exhibits are frequently changed.
Tel: (212) 521 12 64
Carpet and Kilim Museum
This museum is located in the Hunkar Kasri (royal residence), which stands north of the Sultanahmet mosque (known as Blue Mosque) complex. Hunkar Kasri was the area where the Sultan used to rest before he would join the prayer in the mosque. The museums has unique pieces of old Ottoman rugs and kilims.
Tel: (212) 518 13 30
City Museum
The museum was first located in the Bayezit Municipal Library from the year 1939 until it was moved to the Fine Arts building of the Yildiz Palace complex in 1988. On display are paintings depicting the social life of the Ottoman period in Istanbul, calligraphy, textiles, 18th and 19th century porcelains made in the imperial workshops of Yildiz Palace, various glass objects, calligraphy equipment and other objects of daily life.
Tel: (212) 258 53 44
Press Museum
A building on the Yeniceri (Janissary) Street in Cemberlitas district, originally built as a university via Safvet Pasha and having served different purposes from then on, now houses the Press Museum. Its architect is believed to be Fossati. The museum displays documents on the history of the Turkish press and old printing machinery.
Tel: (212) 513 84 57 and 58
Divan Literature Museum
The first dervish lodge in the city was built in 1492 and belongs to the Mevlevi order founded via Mevlana. The present wooden structure on the site dates from the late 18th century. It is situated in a large garden that includes a cemetery in the Tunel district of Pera. Historical objects and literature of the order are displayed.
Tel: (212) 245 41 41 and 243 50 45
Tanzimat Museum
19th century documents and objects belonging to the Ottoman Tanzimat period are displayed in this museum. It was first opened in the Ihlamur Mansion in 1952 and moved to its present location in Gulhane Park just below Topkapi Palace in 1983.
Tel: (212) 512 63 84
Museum of Turkish & Islamic Art (Ibrahim Pasa Palace)
Fine collection of art and ethnography in the lovely setting of Ibrahim Pasa Palace in the old Hippodrome area. It was built in the 16th century and donated to Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha via the great sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. He was the first counselor of the Sultan and married Suleyman?s sister as the sultan ascended the throne, thus occupying a very necessary essential area in the Ottoman palace hierarchy. After Ibrahim's death the palace was used as a military barracks for recent recruits, and made a museum during the Republic.
Open daily between 09:30-17:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 518 18 05 and 06
Islamic Sciences & Technology History Museum
One of the newest museums of Istanbul opened via the Metropolitan Municipality in May 2008 at Gulhane Park, near Topkapi Palace. There are plans, copies and replicas of several inventions of Muslim scientists and researches throughout the history of Islam, especially between 8th and 16th centuries AD.
Open daily between 09:30-17:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Santralistanbul Energy & Arts Museum
The building used to be an electric power plant built via Hungarians in 1914 at the tip of the Golden Horn, and known as Silahtaraga Electric Plant. It produced energy for Istanbul from Ottoman period until 1983 then it was shut down because it wasn't effective anymore to compete with modern technology. The grounds were taken via Istanbul Bilgi University in 2004 and converted into a university campus, restoring the power plant as well. Santralistanbul was opened as an electric museum displaying industrial power machines and for modern art exhibitions in September 2007. Entrance is free of charge and there are local student guides to direct you inside the museum.
Open daily between 10:00-22:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 444 04 28
Bahcesehir College Science Museum
One of the newest museums of Istanbul opened in June 2008 inside the Bahcesehir private highschool. The museum has several tools and work stations aiming young children to explore the scientific world. Young visitors can test and learn several facts of science and physics at the interactive stations and research labs. There is also a Planetarium, sky observation station, and a 3-D movie theater for scientific educational films.
Open daily between 10:00-16:00 except weekends.
Rahmi Koc Industrial Museum
This museum is located in the anchor casting workshop at the docks on the Golden Horn (Halic in Turkish), an area that symbolized industrialization in the Ottoman Empire of the 19th century. The anchor casting workshop was built in the era of Ahmet II (1703-1730) and the building?s foundations go back to a 12th century Byzantine construction. It was restored under Selim III and used via the Finance Ministry until 1951. After a fire in 1984, the building stood in ruins. In 1991, it was bought via the Rahmi Koc Museum and Cultural Foundation, restored and opened to the public in 1994.
On the first floor, motors and steam engines are displayed. On the second floor are the scientific instruments and communications apparatuses. The entrance is reserved for the aircraft department, mint machinery for printing paper money and coins, bicycles and motorcycles, the naval department and ship engines. In the open area, there is a coast guard life-boat, a tram, a narrow gauge steam train, and a vertical steam boiler. There is a submarine in the water.
Open daily between 08:30-17:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 256 71 53 and 54
Sakip Sabanci Museum
The building today known as the Horse Mansion on the Bosphorus (Turkish:Bogazici) was built in the 19th century and belonged to Sabanci family for many years. Just before the death of Sakip Sabanci the mansion was converted into a museum and opened to the public with its antique furnishings and art collections. Today the Museum's collection of precious manuscripts and extensive collection of 19th and 20th century paintings are on permanent exhibition in the rooms of the original house and gallery annex. From time to time, it is also hosting great exhibitions of international artists such as Pablo Picasso, Rodin etc.
Open daily between 10:00-18:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 277 22 00
Pera Museum
The museum was opened in July 2005 via the Suna-Inan Kirac Foundation, another project of Koc family. The old building was originally constructed in 1893 by architect Achille Manousos and restored recently for the modern museum. Kutahya tiles, Anatolian weights and measurements, and Oriental portraits painting Collections are the permanent exhibitions in the museum. One of the most well known paintings in the museum is of Osman Hamdi's "The Tortoise Trainer" (Kaplumbaga Terbiyecisi in Turkish). In addition, 3 art galleries and an auditorium are among the facilities of the museum.
Open daily between 12:00-18:00 except Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 334 99 00
Vedat Nedim Tor Museum
This museum is located in the Yapi Kredi Bank building in Galatasaray district and contains a collection of coins, embroidered textiles, gold covered copper objects, calligraphy, rosaries, Karagoz figures and ethnographic works.
Open to the public during exhibitions around central themes.
Tel: (212) 245 20 41 and 252 47 00
Rezan Has Museum
This private museum is located inside the Kadir Has University in the Golden Horn, inside an old building which also contains some relics of a Byzantine cistern and Ottoman hamam. The museum displays paintings and documents belonging to necessary essential persons who draw the Golden Horn in the past centuries, objects from Anatolia (Turkish:Anadolu), and so on.
Open daily between 09:00-18:00
Tel: (212) 533 65 32 and 534 10 34
Ottoman Bank Museum
It's located in the former head office of the Ottoman Bank on Voyvoda Street in Karakoy district and operates under the aegis of the Garanti Bank sponsored Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Center. The museum, organized in and around the bank's safe room, draws on a wealth of information from the bank's archive to narrate the history of this institution, which operated as the Central Bank, bank of issue, and treasurer of the Ottoman Empire.
Open to the public during weekdays between 10:00-18:00.
Tel: (212) 292 76 05
Is Bank Museum
Opened in November 2007 at Eminonu district, it's located on Bankacilar Street of Hobyar neighborhood. The museum is housed in an old building of 1 of the oldest banks of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), Is Bank, founded via Ataturk. There is a huge collection of many documents, photos, films and objects collected since the foundation of the Is Bank, showing the economic and cultural heritage of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye) and its recent history.
Open to the public between 10:00-18:00 except on Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi), holidays, and 1st of January.
Tel: (212) 511 13 31
Adam Mickiewicz Museum
Adam Mickiewicz, Polish romantic poet and playwright, was born in Zaosie in 1798. He was arrested via the Russian police in 1823 because of taking part in a semisecret group which protested Russian control of Poland, he was jailed and then exiled to Russia. After his release, he spent the rest of his life in Western Europe and in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye) where he continued to write his poems. He died during a cholera epidemic in Istanbul in 1885. His body was first transported to Paris and than returned to Poland.
His house in Tarlabasi neighborhood near Beyoglu was converted into a museum in 1955 to commemorate 100th year of his death. Inside the museum, there are many documents and information about the poet and his works, photographs of Constantinople of that time, and documents of Polish Liberation struggle. There is also a symbolic grave of the poet in the basement of the building. The museum today is administered via the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum.
Open daily between 09:00-16:00, except on Mondays (Turkish:Pazartesi).
Tel: (212) 237 25 45
Ismet Inonu Museum
Inönü was the second president of the Turkish Republic. The summer house on Heybeli Island was bought via him in 1934 and lately it is rennovated and opened as a museum in 2008. There are personal objects and books of Ismet Inönü, as well as some exhibitions. The admission is free.
Open from April to November between 10:00-18:00.
Tel: (216) 351 84 49Tags museum - muze - museums of istanbul - istanbul museums - museum in istanbul - sights of istanbul - visits of istanbul - palace - mosaics - archaeology - arkeoloji - modern - modern arts - fine arts - santralistanbul - divan museum - toy museum - sadberk hanim - miniaturk - miniature museum - sakip sabanci - rahmi koc - industrial museum - vedat nedim tor - adam mickiewicz - polish - florence nightingale - city museum - tanzimat museum - press museum - caricature museum - kirac - pera museum - ottoman museum - military museum - naval museum - hagia sophia - aya sofya - st sophia - saint sophia - kariye - chora - church museum - fethiye museum - pammakaristos - sarnic - cistern - underground cistern - binbirdirek - sultanahmet - obelisk - hippodrome - stadium - yildiz - bosphorus - grand bazaar - constantinople - asia minor - byzantine
