Topkapı Palace Seraglio to host more visitors

With restoration works in the Topkapı Palace's Courtyard of the Concubines and the Seraglio Hospital nearing their end, efforts are being made to increase the number of visitors by threefold in the different sections of the palace's Seraglio.

Restoration works in the Seraglio section of the palace have been continuing since 2014, and now, as the works are nearing their end, people will soon be able to see the different new areas of the Seraglio, which was not possible before.

In the Courtyard of the Concubines, which consists of a courtyard with classical Anatolian house architecture and two-story buildings around it, a dome and a vault were conserved first within the scope of the restoration works at the site.

Concrete plasters, believed to have remained from the 1940s, were removed, original brick joint techniques were applied, and the restoration of the wall tiles and paintings was completed.

The restoration work of the Seraglio Hospital has also reached the final stage. It is known that the hospital, which is believed to be built at the farthest point of the Seraglio in order to prevent people of the palace from being affected by a possible epidemic, was used during the cholera epidemic at the time of Sultan Abdulaziz.

In the hospital, where all employees were women, there is a pharmacy, a patient's room, a kitchen, a bathing cubicle, laundry as well as some other rooms. After the completion of the works, visitors will have the option to see the various sections of the Seraglio.

Warehouses will be opened to visitors

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu Agency, Yasin Yıldız, the head of the National Palaces Administration, said that although the Topkapı Palace Seraglio was a place of great interest,...