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Istanbul socialite Ayşegül Nadir is restoring the Sa’dullah Pasha Yalı. Farther up the Asian coast, plans are again afoot to restore the dilapidated 1698 Köprülü Pasha Yalı. Restoration of this oldest of the yalıs was first planned in 1915, but was derailed when, following World War I, the Ottoman era ended with the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey.

Editor’s note: Hellier ended this piece with a final sentence noting that if the Köprülü Yalı’s facelift was completed in 1998, it would also be its three hundredth anniversary. Sadly, however, things didn’t turn out that way. According to Jane Taylor in Imperial Istanbul, “A few years ago the Turkish Touring and Automobile Club was given permission to renew the wooden props that held the front of the room above the water, and to replace the broken windows. Since then nothing has been done. Yet it is a unique monument of great historic and artistic interest, and it would well repay careful restoration.”

Sadberk Hanım Museum

Among my favorite Istanbul museums is the Sadberk Hanım Museum, up the Bosphorus in Büyükdere. I originally wanted to visit the museum because it’s in a beautiful yalı, and as I didn’t know anyone who owned a yalı I thought it might be my only opportunity to see the inside of one (so far, I was right about that). The original building is a three-story wooden mansion that is generally believed to date from the late nineteenth century, and it was purchased by the wealthy and influential Koç family in 1950 and used as a summer house. It opened as a museum in 1980, and what a gem of a museum it is! The collection consists of artifacts of Anatolian civilizations dating to 5400-4750 BC; Greek artifacts (mostly terra-cotta items and figurines); Roman artifacts; Byzantine art; coins; early Islamic art; Seljuk art; Ayyubid and Mamluk art; Timurid and Safavid art; Ottoman art; enamelware; Chinese celadons and porcelains; Iznik and Kütahya ceramics; European and Turkish porcelains; glassware; calligraphy (this collection isn’t large, but it is gorgeous); embroideries, needlework, and silk fabrics; women’s costumes and fans; and excellent ethnographic displays on Turkish customs, including the coffee service, the bridal bath, the henna party, the shaving of the bridegroom, childbed customs, and a circumcision bed. Definitely worth a detour.

The Sadberk Hanım is not far from the also excellent Sakıp Sabancı Museum. This villa was built in 1927 by Italian architect Edouard de Nari, commissioned by Prince Mehmed Ali Hasan of Egypt. Later it served as the Montenegran embassy, and in 1950 it was bought by industrialist Hacı Ömer Sabancı. It came to be known as the Horse Mansion because a statue of a horse was installed in the garden. Another horse on the grounds is the cast of one of the four horses taken from Sultanahmet when it was looted by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade and sent to the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. The Sabancı houses a permanent collection and mounts temporary exhibitions as well. Its calligraphy collection is outstanding (examples from over five hundred years); the painting collection focuses primarily on works created between 1850 and 1950; furniture and decorative arts are on the entry level of the museum in rooms that were in use when the Sabancı family lived in the mansion; archaeological and stone pieces are showcased in the garden; and of course there is also the Müzedechanga restaurant!

If you prefer to tour the Bosphorus shoreline in more privacy—and have the advantage of getting much closer to the shore than when on the large ferry boats—a reliable private guide is Erol Aydin, proprietor of Enjoy Cruises. His boat, Enjoy, is fifty feet long with a seating capacity of eight people. Enjoy cruises along at about five to seven miles per hour (ten maximum), and trips can be arranged for daytime cruises, sunset journeys, half days, or full days. Princes’ Islands cruises are also popular. Aydin is