GÜLHANE PARK

Description

Essentials about Gülhane Park in brief

Anyone walking through the historic center of Istanbul will inevitably end up in Gülhane Park. Located within the outer crenellated walls of Topkapi Palace, it occupies the western part of the palace grounds. With its large green spaces, flower gardens, greenhouses, terraced walkways, cafes and fountains, the park is a beautiful green oasis of tranquility in the midst of Istanbul’s vibrant city life.

The grounds and buildings of Gülhane Park

The park was named after the former “Gülhane” (“Rose House”). Once Gülhane Park was part of the outer garden of Topkapi Palace. Part of the garden was opened to the public in 1912. While it was once a place for chivalric games and archery competitions, the garden is now a wooded public park with live concert performances, tea gardens and other amusement and recreation facilities.

Next to the main entrance, the “Gate of the Cold Well”, on top of a masonry tower, there is the polygonal “Pavilion of the Festive Processions”, through the windows of which the Sultan could monitor the movements in front of the opposite High Gate, the official residence of his Grand Vizier. The pavilion in its present form with its tail roof was restored and designed by Sultan Mahmud II in 1819.

In the north of the park is the so-called Column of the Goths. A pedestal rises over three steps, supporting the 15-meter high monolithic granite column, crowned by a Corinthian capital. The pedestal bears a Latin inscription that translates as “To Fortuna, who returns for the sake of the defeated Goths.” It commemorates the victory of Eastern Rome over the Goths. The patron of the column is disputed; it may have been Constantine the Great. According to a Byzantine historian, it was crowned by a statue of the legendary founder of the city, Byzas of Megara.

The park has been heavily restored and renaturalized in recent years. Artificial facilities such as a small zoo, amusement park and picnic area have been dissolved in favor of larger green areas, hiking trails have been rearranged and the large pool has been designed in a modern style. In addition, the Museum of the History of Science and Technology in Islam opened in 2008 on the western edge of the park in the former stables of Topkapi Palace. It displays over 140 replicas of inventions from the 8th to 16th centuries from a wide range of scientific disciplines.