Native name: Dolmabahce Sarayi Muzesi
Dolmabahce Palace is located at the European side of the Bosphorus . It was the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1853 to 1922 , except for a twenty-year interval , from 1889 to 1909 , in which the Yıldız Palace was used instead . It was commissioned by Sultan Abdulmecid and its construction began in 1846 and completed in 1856 . The palace covers an area of 250 . 000 m² and its construction cost five million Ottoman gold pounds , which are the equivalent of 35 tons of gold of which about 14 tons where used to gild the ceilings of the palace . The palace is also considered the biggest palace in all of turkey .
The architects responsible for the construction of Dolmabahce Palace were Haci Said , Evanis Kalfa , Karabet Balyan , and his son Nikogos Balyan . The design of the palace is mainly western with elements of Baroque , Rococo and Neo-classic traditions that are combined with ottoman traditional art and culture . At the center hall , you can find the world's largest Bohemian crystal chandelier which has 750 lamps and weighs 4 . 5 tons . The palace is enriched with the largest collection of Bohemian and Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the world . In this palace , there is
also one of the great staircases that has bannisters of Baccarat crystal .
The palace was the place of residence of six sultans from 1856 , when it was first inhabited , up until the end of the Caliphate in 1924 . On March 3 , 1924 ownership of the palace transferred to the national heritage of the new Republic . The palace was then used as a presidential house . Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , the founding leader of the republic , used to stay there in summers . Atatürk spent his last days in it , where he died in a bedroom there at 9:05 am , on 10 October 1938 . That bedroom is now part of the museum where the clock inside the room is still pointing to 9:05 am .
Dolmabahce Palace Museum is open to public on weekdays from 9:00 to 15:00 , except on Mondays and Thursdays .
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