It is difficult to imagine at least one person who has not heard of the amazing Topkapı Palace located in the very heart of the Turkish capital, in the historical center of Istanbul. At all periods of time the main palace of Turkey was a subject for legends. However, not everyone knows about the place where the last rulers of the Ottoman Empire and the first president of the Republic of Turkey lived. By the way, the luxurious residence of the Ottoman sultans, which is located on the coast of the Bosporus Strait, is the biggest palace in the country and a unique monument of Turkish architecture.

The history of the amazing Dolmabahçe Palace started in 1842 when Sultan Abdulmejid I decided to leave the Topkapı Palace and made an order to build a new beautiful residence that would not be worse than those of the European ones. For more than 10 years the famous Armenian family of Balyan was engaged in its construction. The new palace combined three styles: baroque, rococo and neoclassicism. It took around 14 tons of gold to decorate its interior part which occupied an area of more than 45.000 square meters. In the middle, they installed a crystal staircase. In total, there are more than 280 rooms and around 50 halls for different types of meetings in the palace. The main attraction of this palace is a huge chandelier made out of bohemian crystal the weight of which is more than 5 tons. It was a gift from Queen Victoria. Another interesting attraction is the amazing collection of paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky.

With the fall of the great Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey the new Turkish president moved there. That person was the legendary Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Today his room is considered one of the main attractions of the museum that was opened on the territory of the palace in 1952. Later its halls were frequently closed and opened. And only in 1984, the museum was declared a national history museum.