Language variant : Arkeoloji Muzesi
Architect : Vallaury, Alexander
Locality : Istanbul
Country : Turkey
Building style : Neoclassicism
Project on the map (green arrow)
“The first collection of antiquities found in the Ottoman Empire was begun in 1864 by the then Minister of War, Fetih Ahmet Paşa, a brother-in-law of Sultan Abdül Mecit I. They were stored in the church of Haghia Eirene, but by 1874 space there had become restricted, and the antiquities were moved to the nearby Çinili Köşk. But the real founder of the museum was the director who was appointed in 1881. Hamdi Bey was an artist and the son of an earlier Grand Vezir, Ibrahim Edhem Paşa, a combination which gave him a foothold in the camps of both art and power. One of his first acts was to prohibit the further export of antiquities from the Empire. In 1887 he excavated the royal necropolis at Sidon and discovered the group of sarcophagi, including the Alexander Sarcophagus, that are the chief glory of the museum.
It was these sarcophagi – too big for the Çinili Köşk – that necessitated the construction of the present building, the main body of which was opened to the public in 1896.”
Jane Taylor, Imperial Istanbul (Iznik – Bursa – Edirne), Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1989, p.314.
Ed. Adzhoa Makkonen