Dolmabahçe Palace was ordered by the Empire's 31st Sultan Abdülmecid I, and built between the years 1843 and 1856. Previously, the Sultan and his family had lived at the Topkapı Palace, but as the medieval Topkapı was lacking in contemporary style, luxury, and comfort, as compared to the palaces of the European monarchs, Abdülmecid decided to build a new modern palace near the site of the former Beşiktaş Sahil Palace, which was demolished.

The palace was inhabited from the year 1856 by six Sultans and the last Caliph: Sultan Abdülmecid (1839-1856), Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876), Sultan Murad V (1876), Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909), Sultan Mehmed Reşad V (1909-1918) Sultan Mehmed VI Vahdeddin (1918-1922) and the last Caliph Abdülmecid (1922-1924). After the foundation of the Republic,  Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Türkiye, used the palace as a presidential residence during the summers and enacted some of his most important works here.

Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk spent the last days of his life in the palace as his health deteriorated. He died at 9:05 a.m. on November 10, 1938, in a bedroomin the  palace. All the clocks in the palace were stopped and set to 9:05 after his death. The clocks outside of his room now are set to the actual time in Turkey, but the clock in the room in which he died still points to 9:05.

Hosting many important figures throughout its history, Dolmabahçe Palace is now a museum and one of the most visited sights in Istanbul. More than 50,000 objects, presented in hundreds of rooms, reflect the grandeur of the Ottoman period.

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