Pera Palace Hotel

Pera Palace Hotel at blue hour, floodlit pale stone corner block with arched dormers, wrought-iron balconies and bracketed window hoods above rusticated arches, red light trails curving past on the street
Location: Istanbul, TurkeyType: HotelYear: 1895Architect: Alexander Vallaury + KA.BA Conservation of Historic Buildings and Architecture + Metex Design GroupPhotographer: Canerol86, Jorge Franganillo

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qwesy qwesy, Francesco.Brocchi, Elgaard, CeeGee, Mimar77

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Pera Palace Hotel by Alexander Vallaury in Istanbul, Turkey

The Pera Palace Hotel is the grand late-Ottoman hotel on the Tepebaşı ridge of Pera, the historic Beyoğlu quarter of Istanbul, Turkey. Designed by the Levantine architect Alexander Vallaury, it was begun in 1892 and opened with a grand ball in 1895 to receive passengers of the Orient Express; its 2008–2010 restoration was directed by conservation architects KA.BA Conservation of Historic Buildings and Architecture, with refunctioning and interior architecture by Metex Design Group.

Seating area off the Kubbeli Salon with banded stone pillars, candle chandeliers and brass globes on a long reading table, red sofas and leather chairs, gilt-framed paintings in the hall beyond

Orient Express travellers, electric light and Constantinople’s first lift

The hotel was conceived for travellers arriving on the Orient Express, the long-distance service the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits had launched in 1883, and it took its name from the hillside district once known as “Little Europe”. Apart from the imperial palaces, it was the first building in the Ottoman Empire to be powered by electricity; it was the only address in the city to offer guests hot running water, and it installed the first electric elevator in Constantinople. Among its early owners was the Ottoman Armenian Esayan family, and on 11 March 1941 bombs hidden in luggage brought from Sofia by British Legation staff exploded in the hotel, killing five people.

Marble staircase with red patterned runners at the Pera Palace Hotel, the historic lift in a black wrought-iron cage with glazed wooden doors, pink orchids, a bronze chandelier and large oil paintings

Vallaury’s neo-classical stone front and Orientalist salons

Vallaury — born in Istanbul in 1850, trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and later called the “architect of the city” by Osman Hamdi Bey — also designed the Imperial Museum, today the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, and the Ottoman Bank headquarters. At the Pera Palace he gave the exterior and plan a disciplined neo-classical order: a corner block of pale dressed stone with rusticated ground-floor arches, bracketed window hoods, wrought-iron balconies and a mansard roof lit by arched dormers. Inside, the mood turns eclectic, with Orientalist decoration concentrated in the great salon and Art Nouveau lines around the lift and the former coffee house.

Agatha Christie Room at the Pera Palace Hotel, mahogany bed with gilt mounts, dressing table and red chair, a framed portrait above, typewriter and books on a side table by tall dark red curtains

The Kubbeli Salon, the historic lift and the writers’ rooms

The heart of the hotel is the Kubbeli Salon, the domed hall long used for afternoon tea: striped stone walls, banded arches with zigzag voussoirs, upper galleries behind latticed windows, red velvet seating and tiers of crystal chandeliers beneath a ceiling of six small domes. Beside the marble staircase the original lift rises in a cage of black ornamental ironwork with glazed timber doors, and the Orient Bar keeps its damask walls, fringed velvet chairs and stained-glass arches. Upstairs, Room 411 is kept as the Agatha Christie Room — the hotel says the novelist visited between 1926 and 1932, and tradition links the room, unproven, with Murder on the Orient Express — while Room 101 has been a museum to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk since 1981.

Ernest Hemingway Suite at the Pera Palace Hotel with a blue velvet bench at the foot of the bed, striped armchair and footstool, glazed bookcase, gold silk curtains and a glass chandelier

2008–2010 restoration by KA.BA and Metex Design Group

After closing in 2006, the hotel was restored in a €23 million project launched in April 2008 by the Beşiktaş group under the supervision of Turkey’s Superior Council for the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Property. KA.BA Conservation of Historic Buildings and Architecture, whose restoration architect was Cengiz Kabaoğlu, led the conservation work, while Metex Design Group handled the redesign and interiors: the historic lift’s machinery was overhauled, the space above the salon’s six domes was glazed to bring in daylight, and a spa of about 380 square metres was added before the hotel reopened on 1 September 2010 with 115 rooms, 16 of them suites. Jumeirah managed it from 2012 to 2017, and the hotel is the setting of the 2022 Netflix series Midnight at the Pera Palace.

Meşrutiyet Street entrance of the Pera Palace Hotel with red half-dome awnings over arched ground-floor windows, a glass-and-iron canopy, carved brackets and wrought-iron balconies above parked cars

Photography and credits

The photographs move from a floodlit corner at dusk into the Kubbeli Salon, the marble stair and historic lift, the Orient Bar and the Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway rooms, then back out to the Meşrutiyet Street entrance and the views towards the Golden Horn — interiors that are central to the project, which is why it is tagged Interior Design as well as Commercial. Credits go to Canerol86, Jorge Franganillo, qwesy qwesy, Francesco.Brocchi, Elgaard, CeeGee and Mimar77 under the CC licences noted on each Wikimedia Commons file.

Pera Palace Hotel floodlit magenta at dusk on the Tepebaşı ridge, traffic trails below and the Golden Horn glowing under an orange sunset sky with the lights of the historic peninsula beyond

Pera Palace Hotel gallery

Pera Palace Hotel at blue hour, floodlit pale stone corner block with arched dormers, wrought-iron balconies and bracketed window hoods above rusticated arches, red light trails curving past on the streetKubbeli Salon at the Pera Palace Hotel, crystal chandeliers beneath latticed upper windows, striped stone walls and zigzag arches over pink velvet armchairs, a central flower table and red Persian rugsSeating area off the Kubbeli Salon with banded stone pillars, candle chandeliers and brass globes on a long reading table, red sofas and leather chairs, gilt-framed paintings in the hall beyondDaytime corner view of the Pera Palace Hotel's cream stone facades with mansard dormers, iron balconies and a row of red half-dome awnings above the ground floor, yellow taxis in the streetMarble staircase with red patterned runners at the Pera Palace Hotel, the historic lift in a black wrought-iron cage with glazed wooden doors, pink orchids, a bronze chandelier and large oil paintingsOrient Bar at the Pera Palace Hotel with damask-papered walls, a backlit wall of bottles, brass chandeliers, stained-glass arches, fringed crimson velvet armchairs and a man reading by a red lampAgatha Christie Room at the Pera Palace Hotel, mahogany bed with gilt mounts, dressing table and red chair, a framed portrait above, typewriter and books on a side table by tall dark red curtainsLooking down on six white dome caps studded with blue and clear glass lenses above the Kubbeli Salon at the Pera Palace Hotel, crossed black iron tie beams over a pale timber floorErnest Hemingway Suite at the Pera Palace Hotel with a blue velvet bench at the foot of the bed, striped armchair and footstool, glazed bookcase, gold silk curtains and a glass chandelierLooking down the historic lift shaft at the Pera Palace Hotel, black iron columns and cables beside the ornamental wrought-iron cab roof, carpeted marble flights winding around it to the floor belowMeşrutiyet Street entrance of the Pera Palace Hotel with red half-dome awnings over arched ground-floor windows, a glass-and-iron canopy, carved brackets and wrought-iron balconies above parked carsElevated view of the Pera Palace Hotel's mansard roof, dormers and pale stone facades with red awnings at street level, the Golden Horn and a hillside mosque visible beyond neighbouring buildingsPera Palace Hotel floodlit magenta at dusk on the Tepebaşı ridge, traffic trails below and the Golden Horn glowing under an orange sunset sky with the lights of the historic peninsula beyond

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