< TURKEY | BÜYÜKADA: Splendid Palace Hotel

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Located on Büyükada, the largest and most popular of the nine islands known as the Princes’ Islands, Splendid Palace Hotel was inaugurated in 1908. Today, it is still owned by the descendants of the original owner and founder, Sakizli Müsir Mehmet Kazim Pasha.

The Hotel was modeled after the Negresco Hotel in Nice. Though inspired to some extent by ‘Art Nouveau’, Splendid Palace clearly displays an east / west synthesis in architectural design with its bright inner courtyard encircled with rooms, and the pillars on floors around the courtyard. New York Times described the hotel as an "Art Nouveau-flavored wedding cake".

Splendid Palace is a magnificent building with silvery domes and red shutters, facing the Marmara Sea and the megapolis of Istanbul. Originally featuring 100 rooms, Splendid Palace Hotel today has 70 rooms and 4 suites accommodating a total of 134 guests.

It is a historical symbiosis with nature, retaining the nostalgic ecstasy of the past in Büyükada’s unique, peaceful and relaxing island atmosphere far removed from the stress created by nature of the big city. In Büyükada as well as the on other Princes Islands, horse drawn carriages are still the only means of public transportation.

Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII once stayed there, and when one ascends the marble staircase and enters the entry hall, he almost expects to see the Duke and Duchess appear in the hotel’s fountained atrium, dancing a ghostly tango.

A restaurant, seating 90 people indoors and outdoors, offers its guests select dishes of Turkish as well as global cuisine.

Due to its unforgettable historical and cultural heritage, the Splendid Palace Hotel is one of Turkey’s few hotels which have been assigned special status by the Ministry of Tourism.

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