Pera Palace Hotel: The Orient Express Hotel
Why is it significant?
Look at the grand stone hotel on the corner, with its tall windows and the name written proudly across the top. Imagine a carriage pulling up here in the 1890s, porters running out for the trunks, and a lady in a travelling cloak stepping down after three days on the train from Paris.
Key Facts
| Place | Pera Palace Hotel: The Orient Express Hotel |
|---|---|
| Address | Evliya Çelebi, Meşrutiyet Caddesi No:52, Tepebaşı, Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Türkiye |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.03100, 28.97350 |
| Part of Walk | Across the Golden Horn: Hidden Galata and Pera, Istanbul |
| Generated | Generated |
Look at the grand stone hotel on the corner, with its tall windows and the name written proudly across the top. Imagine a carriage pulling up here in the 1890s, porters running out for the trunks, and a lady in a travelling cloak stepping down after three days on the train from Paris.
The Pera Palace was built in 1892 to give the passengers of the Orient Express somewhere to stay worthy of the journey. The train had begun running from Paris to Constantinople only a few years before, ending at Sirkeci station across the water, and travellers were carried up to Pera to sleep. The architect was Alexandre Vallaury, the same man who designed the Ottoman Bank you passed on Bankalar Caddesi.
It was a palace of modern wonders: electric light, hot running water, and an electric lift, at a time when most of İstanbul still lived by oil lamps. Through its doors came diplomats, spies, writers and stars. Agatha Christie stayed here, and a room is kept in her memory. Atatürk stayed here too, and his room has been preserved as a small museum.
Christie gives the hotel its favourite legend. The story goes that she wrote part of Murder on the Orient Express in her room here, and that decades later a medium in Hollywood claimed her spirit revealed a key hidden under the floorboards. Nobody can prove a word of it, and the hotel has never minded.
The real drama was darker. In March 1941, as the Second World War spread across the Balkans, a bomb hidden in the luggage of the British diplomatic mission arriving from Sofia exploded in the lobby, killing several people. Neutral İstanbul was a nest of intrigue in those years, and this hotel was at its centre. Now walk back along Meşrutiyet, past the museum, and turn right onto İstiklal. Behind a gateway between two apartment blocks, a red brick church waits.