After a visit to a museum of international standards on the shore of “the brook of Istanbul”, the Bosphorus, you can enjoy your lunch or dinner on a terrace overlooking the Bosphorus, belonging to a restaurant which has been praised by publications such as the Sunday Times, The Guardian, BBC Olive and Condé Nast Traveller. You need only to come to Sakıp Sabancı Museum for this.
The Sakıp Sabancı Museum which is located in one of the oldest settlements on the Bosphorus named Emirgân, is an establishment of Sabancı University, which was founded by the Sabancı Group led by the Hacı Ömer Sabancı Foundation, the largest and most active family foundation of Turkey.
The villa which comprises the main building of the museum was built by the Italian architect Edouard De Nari by request of Prince Mehmed Ali from the Egyptian Hıdiv family to be used as his summer residence. It also served as the Montenegro Embassy for a short period of time.
Hacı Ömer Sabancı, an industrialist from Adana, bought the villa from Princess İffet of the Hıdiv family in 1950. Because the horse statue made by the Frech sculptor Louis Doumas in 1864 was bought and placed in front of the mansion the same year, it began to be known as “The Horse Mansion”. The second horse statue within the grounds of The Horse Mansion is a casting of one of the four hourses placed in front of the Venice San Marco church after being taken from the Istanbul Sultanahmet Square which was plundered during the 4th Crusade in 1204.
Following the death of Hacı Ömer Sabancı (1966), the Horse Mansion served as Sakıp Sabancı’s permenant residence, and housed his rich calligraphy and painting collection. It was alloted to Sabancı University with the collections and furniture inside it in 1998, in order to transform it into a museum.
The museum was opened to visit in 2002 with the addition of a modern gallery. In 2005 it reached international standards on a technical basis with the expansion of its exhibition areas.
One of the two collections on permanent display in the museum is The Sakıp Sabancı Collection of Ottoman Calligraphy (which presents at a glance examples of 500 years of the art of Ottoman calligraphy), and the other one is The Sakıp Sabancı Painting Collection (which is composed of select examples of early Turkish painting as well as the works of foreign artists who worked in Istanbul during the later years of the Ottoman Empire).
And three rooms on the entry level of the The Horse Mansion are preserved with the furnishings and objects of decorative art of the 18th and 19th centuries that were in use during the period when the Sabancı Family resided there. And also, the Sakıp Sabancı Museum Collection of Archaeological and Stone Works, which is composed of works that have come down to us from Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman eras, is exhibited in the garden of the Museum.
Sakıp Sabancı Museum has hosted numerous international exhibitions since its establishment. These include From the Medicis to the Savoias Ottoman Splendour in Florentine Collections, Paris - St.Petersburg Three Centuries of European Fashion from the Alexandre Vassiliev Collection, Picasso in Istanbul, Master Sculptor Rodin in Istanbul, In Praise of God – Anatolian Rugs in Transylvanian Churches, 1500-1750, The World of Abidin Dino, Istanbul, Isfahan, Delhi: Three Capitals of Islamic Art Masterpieces from the Louvre Collection, Salvador Dalí: A Surrealist in Istanbul, Joseph Beuys and His Students - Works From The Deutsche Bank Collection.
The Müzedechanga Restaurant, which is a branch of the internationally acclaimed Changa Restaurant, and the Winter Garden Café are also at the service of the museum’s visitors.
Visiting hours and fees:
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: 10.00-18.00
Wednesday: 10.00-22.00
The museum is closed on Mondays.
