Aynalıkavak Palace

Aynalıkavak Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, is a former Ottoman summer palace complex begun in the early 17th century and noted for its classical Ottoman architectural character. Built by the Ottoman state, it occupied a wooded stretch of coastline on the northern shore of the Golden Horn and served as a seasonal residence and ensemble of palace services for successive sultans and their households. The site gained a separate popular name, Aynalı Kavak Saray, translated as the Palace of Mirrored Poplars, after large Venetian mirrors were installed there in the early 18th century.

Initial building activity took place during the reign of Sultan Ahmed I (1603–1617). The first structure work was completed in 1613, commissioned by the Grand Admiral Kayserili Halil Pasha while Ahmed I was in Edirne. At that time the complex formed part of the park known as Tersane Hasbahçe, or Shipyard Gardens, a stretch of coast and wooded hills between the Kasımpaşa and Hasköy neighbourhoods that adjoined the imperial shipyards.

The complex was enlarged in the mid-17th century under Sultan Ibrahim I (reign 1640–1648). In 1677, during the reign of Mehmed IV, the palace burned and was rebuilt thereafter, returning to use as an imperial ensemble with residential and service functions. Rebuilding reinforced its role as a summer residence and as a place for palace administration connected to the waterfront.

In the 18th century the site reached its greatest recorded extent and variety of uses. Under Ahmed III, Venetian merchants presented very large decorative mirrors in 1718 that were placed in multiple halls, and the mirrors gave rise to the alternative name Palace of Mirrored Poplars. The complex then contained the sultan’s apartments, the harem, the chief eunuch’s and palace instructors’ chambers, the treasury and armoury, a prayer hall, barracks for the palace guard, and servants’ rooms, together with numerous park pavilions, baths, pools, mosques, and an aquarium.

Repair and change continued toward the end of the 18th century. One account attributes restoration to Grand Vizier Koca Yusuf Pasha during the reign of Abdul Hamid I; another account states the palace was repaired by Devlet Giray IV and thereafter remained in his family’s possession until 1923. Selim III is the last sultan recorded to have spent time at the complex and he composed music there; during his reign many pavilion buildings were removed to permit enlargement and modernization of the nearby shipyards.

By the late 19th century the palace ensemble was used primarily to receive foreign delegations. Over the 20th century the former grounds became densely built over, and of the many original pavilions only a single pavilion survives, now under the care of Turkey’s Department of National Palaces.