Sepetçiler Kasrı: The Sultan's Pavilion on the Shore
Why is it significant?
Stop by the road where the old palace wall runs along the shore and look at the pavilion perched on top of it, with wide eaves, rows of windows and a terrace looking out over the water. Once the sea washed the foot of this wall.
Key Facts
| Place | Sepetçiler Kasrı: The Sultan's Pavilion on the Shore |
|---|---|
| Address | Hocapaşa, Kennedy Caddesi, Sarayburnu, 34110 Fatih/İstanbul, Türkiye |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.01630, 28.98170 |
| Part of Walk | Sultans' Gates: Topkapı, Gülhane & the Sublime Porte in Istanbul |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop by the road where the old palace wall runs along the shore and look at the pavilion perched on top of it, with wide eaves, rows of windows and a terrace looking out over the water. Once the sea washed the foot of this wall. Now there is a road, a strip of park and the ferries of the Golden Horn passing behind.
This is Sepetçiler Kasrı, the Basket Makers' Pavilion, built in 1643 for Sultan İbrahim. It takes its unusual name, it is usually said, from the guild of palace basket makers who worked nearby. From its windows the sultan and his court could watch ceremonies on the water, and above all the departure and return of the imperial fleet.
Imagine the scene: the galleys of the admiral rowing out from the arsenal on the Golden Horn, banners flying, cannon firing salutes, the whole shoreline crowded, and behind these windows the sultan watching his navy head out towards the Aegean and the Mediterranean. Stand beside the pavilion on a quiet day and you see what he saw: the mouth of the Golden Horn, the far shore of Galata and the Bosphorus opening to your right.
The man who built it is remembered as İbrahim the Mad. He came to the throne after years locked in the kafes, the princes' cage of the Harem, terrified of the brother who had executed his other brothers. His reign was erratic, and in 1648 he was deposed and executed. His mother, Kösem Sultan, one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history, did not save him.
The pavilion is one of the very few buildings left from the waterfront of Topkapı. Its neighbours, kiosks and boathouses, disappeared, many of them when the railway was laid along this shore in the 1870s, straight through the old palace gardens. Follow the line of that railway west now, past the wall, to the station that made it all worth doing.