Historical romance positively drips from every corner of Pera Palace and you can practically see Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Hitchcock, King Edward VIII, and Greta Garbo lounging about with their scotch. Built in 1892 to host Orient Express passengers, the Pera Palace today is considered to be a museum-hotel. And a very beautiful one at that: antique furniture, mother-of-pearl, cast-iron, wood panelling, white marble, grand staircases, hardwood, glass domes, red velvet, and mirrors galore. Opulence from a by-gone era. There is even Europe’s oldest working elevator as well as an original painted sedan chair that was used to transport passengers from the Orient Express to the hotel.
Pera Palace is designated a museum-hotel because Room 101 has been converted into the Ataturk Museum – this was his room whenever he stayed at the hotel. It is full of his personal belongings and even if you know nothing about him, you can tell he was a politically-minded man who enjoyed his comforts. Room 101 consists of a little entryway, the main sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. All rooms have touches of Ataturk – clothes, a tapestry, documents, photos, and mementos.
It really does look like something out of an Agatha Christie novel! And that elevator is amazing!
Too bad about the tea, though what they did have looked nice, hopefully you’ll be able to go again!
And that, hopefully, will be this summer! If the experience is different, I’ll do a follow-up piece!
We definitely have to go back! I didn’t care about the lack of piano and people, so I wasn’t disappointed at all. Too bad it’s so expensive (for me, anyway), otherwise I would spend our whole upcoming trip there 🙂 It’s such an evocative hotel…
the blog re-design looks great by the way!!
i know! staying there would be a dream. ah well, we will find something just as cool but not as expensive!
thanks! i’m glad you like the new format. i find it sets more of a tone of this blog is equally about the articles as it is about the photos.