Pera Palace Hotel

HISTORY IN BRIEF:

According to different sources Pera Palas (Palace) was originally conceived in 1881, and opened in October 1892.
1896: La Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens holds 50% of the hotel.
1895-1915: The 20 years between its opening and World War I were the brightest period of the hotel.
1910: Vaudeville and ice skate shows were held.
1917: Leader and founder of Turkey, Atatürk stayed at the Pera Palace Hotel where he would stay many times later, for the first time.
1923: Declaration of the Republic of Turkey in October 29.
1926: First fashion show in ?stanbul was held in Pera Palace Hotel.
1934: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie was published. Pera Palace Hotel was reputably a major inspiration for the book.
2006: Be?ikta? Marine and Tourism Investments Industry Inc. took over Pera Palace Hotel and the biggest renovation and restoration project in the history of the hotel began.
2008: Restoration project started.
2010: Pera Palace Hotel reopened its doors on 1 September to its guests.
2011: The Most Famous Hotels in the World (famoushotels.org) resume research and compilation of historic material and produces a book about the Pera Palace.
2012: Jumeirah Group, Dubai, United Arab Emirates signed a management agreement with Demsa Group, Istanbul to manage Pera Palace Hotel. The property will be known as Pera Palace Hotel, Jumeirah.

2017: Pera Palace terminates the contract with its managing company.

HISTORY:

The Pera Palas made a great change in the landscape of Istanbul. Designed by the French architect Alexander Vallaury, also the architect of Union Française And the Ottoman Bank was begun in May 1881; the hotel was opened October 1891.
It is said that Sultan Abdülhamit attended the opening ceremony. The " Compagnie Internationale dés Wagons et des Grands Express Européens " had built the hotel for the use of passengers coming from Paris to Istanbul. This is why the symbols of the Pera palas and the orient express are the same. From the time of its opening until today, Pera palas had been frequented by well-known and highly-placed figures in the political world; such as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Ismet Inönü, Celal Bayar, Adnan Menderes, Fahri Korutürk, Refik Koraltan, King Zogo of Albania, Shah R¾za Pehlevi of Iran, King Edward V111 of England , King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Carol of Romania, president Tito of Yugoslavia and Jacqueline Kennedy. Those who know the story of Agatha Christie will remember that she was missing for eleven days in 1926, and that she wrote she had hidden a key in connection with the mystery. On the seventh of march in 1979 a rusty iron key was found in room 411 at the Pera Palas, but still the mystery has not been solved. In 1897, S¸eker Ahmet Pas¸a, a prominent painter had a major exhibition at the hotel. After the First War, occupying forces used the Pera Palas as their head quarters. After the occupation, the British gave "the key to Istanbul" back to Celal Bayar in this hotel, where Ismet Inönü stayed during the armistice talks. The dancing and beauty competition of the Fashion Revue was first arranged in the Pera Palas salons. The most select balls were held there. For feasts special menus were prepared and wine and champagne flowed like water.

It should be mentioned that Pera Palas had been awarded with several medals and a Diploma of Honor. According to Haldun Taner, the famous writer, it was the beloved hotel of the elite of Istanbul and the passengers of the Orient Express.

By the end of the 19th century, the hotel had the first electric elevator in Istanbul and its primitive generator served surrounding buildings as well. In 1915, Petros Bodosaki, the Greek windmill owner visited the hotel. He was turned away due to his poor looks. He was so upset that he bought the hotel. In 1919, Bodosaki turned over the management to his son Haci Toma Anastasiadis. Due to his tax debt, the hotel was then auctioned and the state took up the management in 1923. This is how Pera Palas became functional again. Since then, it holds the title of "the oldest European Hotel of Turkey."

After 1923, Misbah Muhayyes, who gave much to Atatürk during the Syrian campaign, received a letter of thanks from Atatürk who upon Muhayyes’s wish honored him with Turkish citizenship and also gave the management of the hotel. He wrote a will which stipulated that the income of 6the enterprise be divided between philanthropic constitutions. In 1963, trustees left the management entirely to these organizations after forming the Istanbul Hotel Management and Tourism Trading company.

Towards the end of 1977, a businessman from Gaziantep, Hasan Süzer, bought the 60% share and became the Chairman of the Board of Directors and shortly after bought up the remaining shares. Pera Palas was renewed from top to bottom under the management of Hasan Süzer without destroying the historic qualities.

In 2006 Besikta Marine and Tourism Investments Industry Inc. took over Pera Palace Hotel

2008: renovation and restoration project.

In 2010 Pera Palace Hotel reopened its doors on 1 September to its guests.

2011: The Most Famous Hotels in the World (famoushotels.org) resume research and compilation of historic material and produces a book about the Pera Palace.

2012: Jumeirah Group, Dubai, United Arab Emirates signed a management agreement with Demsa Group, Istanbul to manage Pera Palace Hotel. The property will be known as Pera Palace Hotel, Jumeirah.  

2015: The second edition of the book PERA PALACE by Andreas Augustin is launched. 

2017: Pera Palace and Jumeirah part.

1893    William Eliot Morris Zborowski, Count of Montsaulvain   
    American racing car driver
1897    „Mata Hari
    Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan and accused spy for Germany; stagename for Margaretha Geertruida Zelle.
1897    Marie-Letizia de Rute Bonaparte   
    Granddaughter of Lucien Bonaparte, an early woman journalist and French author.
1898    Ruth Frantisek
    Czech philologist and author, also named Ruth Francis, used the pseudonym of Francis Hurt.
1899    Knut Hamson   
    Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature 1920
1902    Pierre Loti
    French naval officer, traveller, writer and novelist, nee Julien Viaud.
1905    Ahmed Semih Mümtaz
    Turkish writer
1908    Claude Farrère, French author 
1910    Refik Hait Karay
    Turkish author
1910    Saffeti Ziya
    Osman writer
1910    Sir Edmund Poe
    British Admiral
1912    Sarah Bernhardt
    French actress
1914    Peter I, King of Serbia
1915    Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian
    Armenian oil tycoon, art collector and philantropist, Mr 5%
1916    Marie Alexandra Victoria
    Queen of Rumania
1916    Hüdai Pasha
    First Egyptian ambassador to Turkey
1916    Ferdinand I,  King of Bulgaria
1918    Ahmet Izzet Pasha
    The Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire
1918    Arthur Calthorpe
    Commander in Chief of the Allied Naval Forces
1918    Falih Rifki Atay
    Turkish journalist and writer
1918    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
    Founder and First President of the Turkish Republik
1918    Ward Price
    British journalist
1918    Ismet Inönü
    Second President of the Türkish Republic
1918    Lord Birdwood
    British Marshall, Commander of the Dardanelles Army
1920    Burton Holmes
    America‘s most famous travel showman
1920    Maurice Praks   
    French journalist and writer
1921    John Dos Passos
    American writer
1921    Behbud Khan
    Azerbaijani politician and diplomat
1922    Ernest Hemingway
    American writer, then foreign correspondent for the ‘Toronto Star Weekly’
1924    Greta Garbo
     Swedish actress
1924    Mauritz Stiller
    Finnish-Swedish film director
1924    Einar Hanson
    Swedish actor
1924    Lowell H. Smith, Leslie Arnold, Leigh P. Wade, Henry H. Ogden, Erik Nelson, Jack Harding
    American pilots flying around the world
1924    Cécile Sorel
    French actress
1924    General K. Vada
     Japanese Military Delegation to Istanbul together with  General Karosaki and Colonel Furaso.
1925    Zozo Dalmas
    Greek diva, actress and operetta singer
1926    Cordy Millowitsch
    German actress and singer
1927    Berthe Georges-Gaulis
    French journalist and writer
1927    Maurice Dekobra
    French writer
1927    Mehmet Rauf
    Osman writer
1930    Willy Sperco
    Italian writer and journalist
1932    Graham Greene
    British writer
1933    Marshall Kliment         Efremovich Voroshilov
    Soviet politician, Peolple‘s Commissar for Military and naval Affairs of the Soviet Union
1935    Dennis Wheatley
    English author
1935    Zog I, Skanderbeg III
    King of  the Albanians
1936    Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson
    Prince of Wales
1936    Josephine Baker
    American dancer, singer and actresss
1937    Sabiha Gökçen
    First female combat pilot and first Turkish aviatrix, one of the eight adopted children of Atatürk.
1938    Walther Funk
    German Minister of Economic Affairs
1938    Eric Ambler
    British writer
1943    Elyeza Bazna
    Albanian servant to the British Ambassador, became famous as spy Cicero.
1944    Franz von Papen
    German politician
1944    Harold Adrian Russel „Kim“ Philby
    First Secretary of the British Embassy, became famous as a spy for the British intelligence agency MI6
1947    Ninette de Valois
    British dancer and founder of The Royal Ballet, London and the Turkish State Ballet
1948    John Dewey
    American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer
1948    Margot Fonteyn
    British ballerina
1950    Agatha Christie
    British author
1950    Váša P?íhoda
    Czech violinist, Paganini specialist
1953    Ernest Mamboury
    Swiss scholar and writer
1955    Ian Fleming
    British author
1960    Hulusi Fuat Tugay and Princess Emine Fuat Tugay
    Turkish Ambassador in Egypt, married to a cousin of King Farouk.
1965    Josip Broz Tito
    Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman
1973    Paul Theroux
    American travel writer and novelist
1977    Gonzague Saint-Bris
    French writer
1977    Baron Yehudi Menuhin
    Russian-American violinist and conductor with Swiss and British citizenship
1978    Valery Giscard d‘Estaing
    President of France
1980    Jan Morris
    Welsh nationalist, historian, author and travel writer.
1980    Zsa Zsa Gabor   
American-Hungarian actress
1980    Alexis Gregory
    Russian-Swiss-American historian, publisher and writer.
1980    Vasif Zobu Riza
    Turkish theatre and movie actor
1980    Feyzi Halici
    Turkish poet and former senator
1981    Bedia Muvahhit
    Turkish theatre and movie actress
1983    Jacqueline Onassis
    Widow of US President John F. Kennedy and of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
1984    Peter Hornung
    German author
1984    Philip Glazebrook
    British author
1984    Daniel Farson
    British writer and TV personality of 1950s and 1960s
1984    Vittorio Giardino
    Italian comic artist
1985    Inge Meysel
    German actress
1986    Raymond Sokolow
    American food writer and journalist
1986    Claudia Roden   
    British cookbook writer, food journalist
1986    Alan Eaton Davidson
    British diplomat, writer and historian
1989    Alexandre Vassiliev
    Russian-French costume and set designer
1990    Girogio Armani
    Italian fashion designer
1990    Michel de Grèce
    Prince Michael of Greece, author of historical novels and biographies.
1990    Julio Iglesias
    Spanish singer
1990    Mikis Theodorakis
    Greek singer
1995    Karl Lagerfeld   
    German fashion designer
1998    Justine Shapiro
    American travel journalist (Lonely Planet)
2000    Patricia Schultz
    American travel journalist and writer
2001    Jackie Chan
    Hong Kong action choreographer, filmmaker, producer, martial artist, actor and screenwriter.
2010    Mathew Prichard
    Grand son of Agatha Christie
2010    Hilary Macaskill
    British journalist and writer
2011    Paulo Coelho and his wife, Christina Oiticic
    Brazilian writer
2011    Claudia Cardinale
    Italian movie star
2011     Matt Dillon
    American movie star
And some more guests (we are not sure about the exact date of arrival)
    Marie Bell
    French actor and director
    Alfred Hitchcock
    British film director and producer
    Fillippo Tommaso Marinetti
    Italian Poet, Founder of Futurism
    Celal Bayar
    Third President of the Turkish Republic
    Fahri Korutürk
    Sixth President of the Turkish Republic
    Seyid Ali Bin Hamud
    Eighth Sultan of Zanzibar
    Eberhard Diepken
    Mayor of Berlin
    Nicholas
    Prince of Macedonia
    Victor Emmanuel III
    King of Italy
    Reza Pahlevi
    Shah of Persia
    Carol II
    King of Rumania
    John Patrick Douglas         Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross
    Scottish historian, biographer of Atatürk
    Maurice Barrès
    French novelist
    Theoklith
    Greek-American Metropolitan
    Abbas II Hilmi Pasha
    Last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan
    Helmut Schmidt
    German PM
    Ana Aslan
    Romanian-Armenian physician and biologist
    Mae West
    American actress, playwright and screenwriter
    Berc Ketchian
    Armenian/American 20th Century artist

... and the list goes on ...

'I can only hope there is a message waiting for us at the Pera Palace.' said Aunt Augusta in Graham Greene's novel "Travels with my Aunt", while they steamed towards Istanbul on board of the legendary Orient Express (nicknamed Stamboul Train). Aunt Augusta wasn't the only protagonist of a famous novel who sojourned at the Pera Palace.

Busy stret life outside of Pera Palace around 1910

The Orient Express:
On 5 June 1883 the first 'Express d'Orient' left Paris for Vienna. Vienna remained the terminus until October 4, 1883. The train was officially renamed Orient Express in 1891.
The Constantinople (Istanbul) route, which first ran on October 4, 1883, was from Paris, Gare de l'Est, to Giurgiu in Romania via Munich and Vienna. At Giurgiu, passengers were ferried across the Danube to Ruse, Bulgaria to pick up another train to Varna, from where they completed their journey to Istanbul by ferry. In 1885, another route began operations, this time reaching Istanbul via rail from Vienna to Belgrade and Niš, carriage to Plovdiv and rail again to Istanbul.

In ancient times the city was known as Bycantinum, later Constantinople. Pera Palace Hotel is built in the cosmopolitan quarter of the city then called 'Little Europe in Istanbul' due to embassies, residences of foreigners and cultural activities. In this lively hub, it is located on a hill overlooking the beautiful sunset in the Golden Horn as it cuts the Bosphorus like a horn made of golden rays of light. The Bosporus or Bosphorus (Greek: Β?σπορος), also known as the Istanbul Strait (Turkish: ?stanbul Bo?az?), is a strait that forms the boundary between the European part (Thrace) of Turkey and its Asian part (Anatolia).

Pera Palace, 'the Pearl of Istanbul', holds the title of 'the oldest European hotel of Turkey'. It is also Turkey's only Select Member of The Most Famous Hotels in the World. Others with similar historical backgrounds have closed down during the course of time, including the Tokatl?yan, d’Angleterre, Park and Yalova Termal Hotels, while the Pera Palace has always stayed in operation.

The lobby in the 1920s

A guide book from the 1920’s wrote: “on the site near the big clubs, theatres and embassies has been built a hotel which alone overshadows everything else. Like all other Grand Hotels, it has an ‘a la carte’ menu  - the only hotel in Istanbul to have hot water therapy baths  - with its situation, luxury and fastidious kitchen, one of the leading hotels in the world  - impossible not to fall in love with the sunset over the Golden Horn  - magnificent eastern Decor ...

* In the late 1880’s and early 1900’s, to receive a growing cosmopolitan clientele, the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits built hotels like the Ghezireh Palace in Cairo, the Pera Palace in Constantinople, the Hôtel de la Plage in Ostend (Belgium), the Hôtel Terminus in Bordeaux and in Marseille, the Riviera Palace in Monte-Carlo and the Grand Hôtel des Wagons-Lits in Peking.
 

The Agatha Christie Legend:

Pera Palas Hotel had a very special place in the life of best-selling author Agatha Christie. She stayed in the hotel many times between 1926 and 1932 and one of the best-known stories, 'Orient Express', was at least inspired if not written there. Warner Brothers took the unusual course of contacting the famous Hollywood medium and clairvoyant, Tamara Rand to see is she could get in touch Christie’s spirit through a seance.  Contact was made, it was claimed, with Christie’s spirit, which indicated that the key to the box containing her missing diary - the diary which would solve the mystery – was in room 411 at the Pera Palas Hotel In Istanbul, Turkey. The news exploded like a bomb in the world press. The Turkish press and the foreign journalists went to the Pera Palas, room 411, on March 7, 1979. A telephone connection with Los Angeles was established and under the direction of Tamara Rand, the floor of the room was taken to pieces, everything being shown by satellite on American television. At the point where the wall joined the floor, right by the door, a rusty, eight centimetre-long key was found. Tamara Rand said that, after she went into a trance, she began to write in a language she did not know. The words she wrote were the name of a street in Istanbul and the name of a hotel on that street. Afterwords she then saw the hotel and Agatha Christie. Agatha was in room 411 and was hiding the key to her diary under the floorboards. To summarize her comments, Rand claimed Agatha Christie let her know that the key was hidden in a hotel room in Istanbul. She even scribbled Agatha’s own hand writing during her trance. She had a vision of Agatha Christie walking along an ancient paved street and read the sign Mesrutiyet Caddesi, then she saw Christie getting into a building called Pera Palas going up into room 411. Once she closed the door, she hid a large key beneath the floorboards. In January 1986, a second key numbered 411 was found in the Pera Palas Hotel, this time in room 511, and the mystery, some say, took on a new dimension.

Paulo Coelho celebrated his birthday

An Eyewitness reports (2011):
The party started with cocktails. Then when everyone was seated for dinner, Paulo Coelho after having explained why he held a party for his friends every year on St Joseph’s Day, ?nv?ted everyone to hold hands and join him in prayer. He said a prayer ?n Portuguese then others said a prayer in several other languages – English, Spanish, French, Greek, German, Japanese – it was quite a moving experience.

The food was excellent, as was the music provided by Turkish rock group BaBa ZuLa, who also had dancers. Sufi meets rock!
    Turkish meze platter
    ***
    ‘Su böre?i’ w?th sp?nach
    ***
    Walnut crusted milk marinated lamb loin,
    on smoked eggplant puree with root
    vegetables and thyme sauce
    ***
    Ottoman dessert plate,
    with clotted cream
    ***
    Tea or coffee

The highlight of the evening was BaBa ZuLa be?ng joined on stage by Paulo Coelho and Rudolf Schenker the legendary lead singer and guitarist from the German rock group the Scorpions performing the classic Still loving you.
The evening ended with Paulo Coelho patiently signing books until the early hours of the morning. During the book signing Ken Crane told a story of a stone.
If nothing else, Paulo knows how to throw a good party. And he can write.
It is not every day that you get to meet Paulo Coelho, Rudolf Schenker the lead singer of Scorpions, and the Abbot of Melk Abbey, all in one day!

Pera Palace Hotel in literature includes
Graham Greene: Stamboul Train (1932)
Agatha Christie: Orient Express (1934)
Dennis Wheatley: The Eunuch of Stamboul (1935)
Ernest Hemingway: The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1936)
Eric Ambler: The Mask of Dimitrios (1942)
Eric Ambler: The Journey Into Fear (1966)
Graham Greene: Travel with my Aunt (1969)
Paul Theroux: The Great Railway Bazaar (1975)
Jan Morris: Among The Cities (1985)
Adibin Dino: Pera Palas (1994)
Cristina Fernández Cubas: Con Agatha en Estambul, Barcelona, Tusquets Editores (1994)
Zülfü Livaneli: Serenad (2011)
Orient Express train in literature includes
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker: whilst Dracula escapes from England to Varna by sea, the cabal sworn to destroy him travels to Paris and takes the Orient Express, arriving in Varna ahead of him.
Have You Got Everything You Want? (1933), short story by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express (1934) by Agatha Christie takes place on the Simplon Orient Express.
On the Orient, North, short story by Ray Bradbury
Stamboul Train by Graham Greene
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
Flashman and the Tiger by George MacDonald Fraser: Sir Harry Paget Flashman travels on the train’s first journey as a guest of the journalist Henri Blowitz.
From Russia, with Love by Ian Fleming
The Orient Express appeared in the 2004 novel Lionboy and its sequel Lionboy: The Case by Zizou Corder.
Charlie Ashanti was stowing away on the train on his way to Venice when he meet King Boris of Bulgaria.
Paul Theroux devotes a chapter of The Great Railway Bazaar to his journey from Paris to Istanbul on the Orient Express.
The Orient Express appeared as a technologically advanced (for its time) train in the book Behemoth, by Scott Westerfeld.
Films about the Orient Express
Orient Express (1934): film adaptation of Graham Greene’s Stamboul Train.
Orient Express (1944): Germany; released on March 8, 1945, likely the last date a new movie was shown in Nazi Germany.
Orient Express (1954), whose plot revolves around a two-day stop at a village in the Alps by passengers on the Orient Express.
From Russia with Love (1963): James Bond’s fight with a rival spy is set aboard the train.
Istanbul Express (1968): thriller, made for television, starring Gene Barry.
Travels with My Aunt (1972): Henry Pulling accompanies his aunt, Augusta Bertram, on a trip from London to Turkey. The two board the Orient Express in Paris; the train takes them to Turkey (though they disembark briefly at the Milan stop).
Murder on the Orient Express (1974), (2001) and (2010): Film adaptations of the Agatha Christie novel.
Romance on the Orient Express (1985): TV movie with Cheryl Ladd.
101 Dalmatians (2000)
Death, Deceit and Destiny Aboard the Orient Express (2000)
Around the World in 80 Days (2004): Phileas Fogg rides aboard the train to Istanbul (the original book by Jules Verne was written in 1873, years before the first Orient Express ever travelled).
The Backyardigans episode Le Master of Disguise features the Orient Express, showing Uniqua, Pablo, Austin, Tasha, and Tyrone going to Istanbul from Paris.

Owning and managing Pera Palace Hotel
1894: Compagnie Internationale des Grands Hotels, a subsidiary to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits et des Grands Express Européens.
1915: Petros Bodosaki
1919: Bodosaki’s son Haci Toma Anastasiadis.
1923: the State owned it
1924: owner Emlâk Eytam Bank, rented out to Misbah Muhayes
1928: Misbah Muhayes
1954: Darü??afaka, Darülaceze, Verem Sava? Derne?i and Cemil and Ferit Muhayye?. 
1974: managed by Istanbul Hotel Management and Tourism Trading Company
1978: Hasan Süzer acquired the majority of the Pera Palace Hotel. In 1982 he bought the rest of the shares.
2006: Be?ikta? Tourism Investments Inc. under CEO Yavuz Kalkavan buys the hotel and conducts a renovation project.
2010: reopening of the hotel. General Manager: Pinar Kartal Timer.
2011: Maçka Konaklama ve Otelcilik A?, owned by Demsa Group, well known in luxury retail with its leading luxury brands including Harvey Nichols and Brandroom in Turkey, acquires management right of Pera Palace Hotel by December 1. Demsa has been founded by Cengiz Çetindo?an and Demet Sabanc? Çetindo?an, member of Sabanc? family, one of the leading families of Turkey with enterprises in various business fields.
2012:  Maçka Konaklama ve Otelcilik A signed a management agreement with Dubai-based Jumeirah Group, to operate the Pera Palace Hotel on 19 March 2012.
2017: Pera Palace operates again independently