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Emirgan is a pleasant neighborhood on the European side of the Bosporus in Istanbul, Turkey. It’s home to a popular park and museum.
Introduction to Emirgan
Emirgan, which lies in the Sarıyer district, was covered with cypress trees during the Byzantine period and known as Kyparades. In the mid-16th century, it was given to Nişancı Feridun Bey, a high-ranking Ottoman official.
The area is named for Tahmaspqoli Khan Qajar (1605-1641), who in 1635 surrendered Yerevan to Sultan Murad IV in return for safe passage to Constantinople. He became Emirgûneoğlu Yusuf Pasha and was given 50 hectares of land, much of it making up present-day Emirgan Park. After Murad IV died, his successor, Ibrahim, had Yusuf Pasha executed. The neighborhood was opened to settlement by Sultan Abdülhamid I in the late 18th century.
Today, Emirgan is a pleasant neighborhood surrounding the park, with an excellent museum and some attractive wooden mansions scattered throughout. It also includes Boyacıköy, which retains its own distinct identity.
Getting to Emirgan
To get to Emirgan, you can take the 22 bus from Kabataş; the 40T from either Kabataş or the Park Otel stop in Gümüşsuyu near Taksim Square; or the 22RE or 40 from central Beşiktaş. The ferry terminal has service on the City Ferry Lines (Şehir Hatları) every hour or so from Eminönü and Beşiktaş.
Emirgan Park
Emirgan Park (Emirgan Korusu) takes up a good chunk of the neighborhood. It covers an area of about 117 acres (470,000 square meters) and features 2 ponds and over 120 species of plants and trees. It’s a popular recreational area, especially on weekends and holidays, with several picnic tables and paths. A tulip garden established in the 1960s has hosted an international tulip festival every April since 2005.
After the execution of the aforementioned Yusuf Pasha, the land changed hands several times. In 1860, Sultan Abdülaziz gifted it to Isma’il Pasha (1830-1895), the Khedive of Egypt. He built three wooden structures – the Yellow Pavilion, Pink Pavilion, and White Pavilion. The heirs of the Khedive sold the land to Turkish businessman Satvet Lütfi Tozan in the 1930s. He donated it to the municipality in 1940 and it opened to the public as a park in 1943.
Yellow Pavilion
The Yellow Pavilion (Sarı Köşk) was built between 1871 and 1878 as a hunting lodge and guest house. It was designed by Ottoman Armenian architect Sarkis Balyan (1835-1899). The two-story mansion covers an area of 400 square meters (4,300 square feet). It has four rooms, a hall, and a kitchen on the ground floor and three rooms and a salon on the upper floor. The ceilings are decorated with painted flowers. The Yellow Pavilion was restored between 1979 and 1983, furnished with antiques, and opened to the public as a café.
Pink Pavilion
The Pink Pavilion (Pembe Köşk) is a two-story building used as a café. It’s open daily except Mondays and is available for weddings and other events.
White Pavilion
The White Pavilion (Beyaz Köşk) is a two-story building with Neoclassical elements. During the day, it’s used as a cafeteria, while in the evenings it’s a restaurant serving Ottoman cuisine.
Sakıp Sabancı Museum
The Sakıp Sabancı Museum (Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi) is the second most popular attraction in Emirgan after the park. It’s a private art museum dedicated to calligraphy and Ottoman period paintings. The museum was founded by Sakıp Sabancı (1933-2004) and opened in June 2002.
The Sakıp Sabancı Museum is open daily except Mondays. Admission is 350₺ for adults, 250₺ for seniors age 65+ and students over 18 with a valid ID, 175₺ for kids age 13-18, and free for kids under 13 (as of May 2025). Admission is free for all visitors on Tuesdays. In addition to the museum, there’s a gift shop along with a restaurant and a café, both with a nice terrace overlooking the Bosporus.
Horse Mansion
The museum is housed in the Horse Mansion (Atlı Köşk), which was built by Italian architect Edoardo De Nari (1874-1954) in 1927. It was commissioned by Prince Mehmed Ali Hasan, the grandson of Khedive Isma’il Pasha. The house sat empty for many years until the Prince’s sister occupied it in 1944.
In 1951, Hacı Ömer Sabancı (1906-1966) purchased the mansion and used it as a summer home. He purchased a bronze statue of a horse, designed by Louis-Joseph Daumas (1801-1887) in Paris in 1864, and placed it at the entrance. The mansion was leased to Sabancı University (Sabancı Üniversitesi) in 1998 along with the art collection and all antique furnishings.
The rooms on either side of the entrance hall, the Pink Room and Blue Room, have been preserved in their original state. They feature chairs upholstered in French silk, vases with the coat-of-arms of Napoleon, and valuable paintings and other furnishings. The rooms were used by the Sabancı family to socialize with guests and host Turkish and foreign dignitaries.
Collection of Arts of the Book and Calligraphy
The Collection of the Arts of the Book and Calligraphy is exhibited in the bedrooms on the upper floor. It includes Qurans, prayer books containing everyday prayers, official decrees, calligraphic panels, and calligraphy sets.
At the end of the 17th century, prayer books with illustrations and diagrams were produced in the Ottoman Empire. The finest were created in the 19th century. They featured talismanic designs, drawings of Muhammad’s personal possessions, and the cities of Mecca and Medina.
Osman Hamdi Bey Exhibit
Also upstairs during my visit was a room dedicated to the work of Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910). He was a talented artist who was also the Ottoman Empire’s first modern archaeologist. He founded the Istanbul Archaeology Museums and the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts (Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi), now Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Rather than display his paintings, the exhibit focused on the subjects of his work.
Turkish Painting: In the Pursuit of Modernism (September 2022-August 2024)
The temporary exhibit on display during my visit was Turkish Painting: In the Pursuit of Modernism. It ran from September 16, 2022, to August 11, 2024.
According to the official website, the exhibit “follows the development of painting from its adoption as a genre in the newly Westernising Ottoman Empire to the first artists of the Republic, who aimed to create an intellectual foundation for their art”. On display were works from the Sakıp Sabancı Museum Painting Collection in chronological order, allowing visitors to visualize “moments of interaction and transformation between different generations”.
Works on display were created by some of the most accomplished Turkish painters of their generation. Next to the selected paintings was a biography of each artist in Turkish and English.
Garden of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum
The garden is one of the highlights of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. It contains 115 species of plants and flowers, including coastal redwood, cork oak, Aleppo Pine, Alexandria Laurel, and Florida Cranberry as well as rare plants from Turkey. The plants come from the Far East, America, Australia, North Africa, and Caucasus regions. Each plant is marked on a map at the entrance and has a sign with information placed next to it.
The terrace is one of the highlights of the garden. From there, you’ll be treated to breathtaking views of the Bosporus.
The Living Pyramid
You’ll also find a few works of art in the garden. During my visit, The Living Pyramid by Agnes Denes (b. 1931) was on display. It’s a living sculpture planted by volunteers on September 10-11, 2022. The pyramid grew and changed shape over time, as the seeds turned into grasses and flowers.
The pyramid was made of wooden stepped terraces filled with four tons of earth and stood nine meters high. 2,000 plants and flowers belonging to around 600 species selected in collaboration with the artist among the urban flora of Istanbul. Each seed was carefully planted depending on the amount of sun and shade necessary, transformed the work as the seeds sprouted. The pyramid promoted environmental awareness, conservation, and sustainability. It also promoted a sense of community, as the people who built it would also be responsible for its care.
At the end of the exhibition on October 30, 2023, visitors were invited to adopt the plants. A marble slab inscribed with Denes’s Manifesto would take the place of the pyramid as a permanent exhibition and reminder of “the micro-community that came together to create it”.
Emirgan Hamid-i Evvel Mosque
The Emirgan Hamid-i Evvel Mosque (Emirgan Hamid-i Evvel Camii) is about a block south of the museum. It was built in 1781 by Sultan Abdülhamid I in memory of his son Mehmed (1786-1781), who died of smallpox, and the consort who bore him, Hümaşah Kadınefendi (d. 1778).
The mosque was originally built in the Baroque style and was rebuilt in the Empire style in the 19th century by Abdülhamid’s son Mahmud II. It was originally part of a complex with a hamam, bakery, mill, and fountain. Only the fountain exists today as well as the original inscription dated 1781. The timekeeper’s room (muvakkithane), added in 1844, now serves as a café.
The mosque is on a square plan and is topped by a wooden roof. There are two rows of windows on each side of the mosque allowing natural light to enter. There’s one minaret on the south side, and a two-story Sultan’s pavilion on the east wall with a separate entrance. The bay window on the pavilion, which is supported by six columns, was used by the Sultan as a resting place.
Şerifler Mansion
A few steps away is the Şerifler Mansion (Şerifler Yalısı). Believed to have been built between 1782 and 1785, it’s the oldest and one of the most impressive waterfront mansions on the European side of the Bosporus. It was built by Fevzi Beyzade Mehmed Bey, the Chief Printer of the Imperial Treasury, and probably stands on the site of a 17th century mansion built for Emirgûneoğlu Yusuf Pasha. The mansion was purchased by Abd al-Ilah Pasha, the Sharif and Emir of Mecca (1845-1908), hence the name. After his death, it was sold to a businessman.
The mansion stood right on the shore until the coastal road was built in the 1940s. The Ministry of Culture acquired the building in 1971, restored it, and opened it to the public as a museum in the 1980s. In 2001, the museum collection was moved to Topkapi Palace and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts for security reasons. Since 2007, it has served as the offices for the Historical Cities Union (Tarihi Kentler Birliği), an organization dedicated to the preservation of historical monuments.
The mansion was originally 900 square meters. It was renovated between 1850 and 1860, completely changing its appearance. In the early 20th century, it consisted of a harem connected by a hanging gallery to the selamlık as well as the Iftar Hall on the west side. The harem and Iftar Hall were demolished during construction of the coastal road, reducing the total size to 350 square meters. The bay window used to protrude over the Bosporus. Inside the selamlık is a central hall with a marble fountain, a dining room, and other rooms.
