Human settlement in the land now called Turkey stretches back to around 1900 B.C., when the region was known as Anatolia. Dozens of civilizations rose and fell across that land before the Ottoman Empire took root in the 14th century. By the 16th and 17th centuries, the empire had grown into one of the most powerful states on earth, stretching across three continents under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.
At the start of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire governed 32 provinces and held authority over numerous vassal states. Its capital, Constantinople — today’s Istanbul — was a city of extraordinary architecture, bustling trade routes, and a population drawn from across the known world. Minarets rose above ancient Byzantine walls. Mosques stood beside centuries-old fountains. The city was a living crossroads between East and West.
The neighborhood of Scutari — known in Turkish as Üsküdar — sat on the Asian side of Constantinople, separated from the main city by the Bosphorus strait. It had a distinct character from the European quarters, with its own mosques, cemeteries lined with towering cypress trees, and quieter residential streets. These views of Scutari offer a rare glimpse into the calmer, less-documented side of the Ottoman capital.
Stamboul — the old historic core of Constantinople — was home to the empire’s most iconic landmarks. Its streets wound between grand mosques, public fountains, and markets where merchants sold goods from across the empire. The density of history packed into those streets was unlike anywhere else in the world. Every alley led to something ancient.
Bursa, located in northwestern Anatolia, held deep significance for the Ottomans. It was the first major capital of the Ottoman state before Constantinople was conquered in 1453. The city was filled with early Ottoman mosques, tombs of the founding sultans, and bustling commercial districts. Its green hills and grand skyline made it one of the most visually striking cities in the empire.
Public fountains were a central feature of Ottoman urban life. They were built not just as practical sources of water but as acts of charity and displays of imperial generosity. The Tophane Fountain, built in 1732, stood near the Bosphorus waterfront in Constantinople and was decorated with intricate Baroque-style carvings — an unusual blend of Ottoman and European design sensibilities.
The Burnt Column — known in Turkish as Çemberlitaş — was one of Constantinople’s oldest surviving monuments. Built in 330 A.D. by the Roman Emperor Constantine I to mark the founding of his new capital, the column stood in an open square for well over a thousand years before the Ottomans arrived, and it remained standing through their rule as well. By the 1890s, it was a blackened, fire-scarred pillar surrounded by the city’s daily foot traffic — a piece of Rome embedded in an Ottoman street.
The Golden Horn is a natural harbor that cuts into the European side of Constantinople. For centuries it served as the city’s main port and a strategic defensive barrier. By the 1890s, its shores were lined with bridges, docks, and the busy Galata commercial district. Ferries and fishing boats shared the water while the city’s skyline of minarets and domes rose in the background.
The Yıldırım Beyazıt mosque in Bursa was built in the late 14th century by Sultan Bayezid I, nicknamed Yıldırım — meaning “Thunderbolt” — for the speed of his military campaigns. The mosque was part of a larger complex that included a medrese, a hospital, and a royal tomb. It represented one of the earliest examples of the Ottoman architectural style that would later reach its peak in Istanbul.
Dolmabahçe Palace was built between 1843 and 1856 along the European shore of the Bosphorus. It replaced Topkapi Palace as the main administrative center of the Ottoman sultans. The palace blended Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical European styles with Ottoman design elements. It contained 285 rooms, 46 halls, and a staircase with crystal banisters — a deliberate statement of modernization and wealth during a period of reform.
The German Fountain in Constantinople’s Sultanahmet Square was a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to Sultan Abdülhamid II, commemorating the German emperor’s visit to the city in 1898. The ornate domed fountain was built in Germany, shipped in pieces, and assembled on site. It was an explicit symbol of the deepening political and military alliance between the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Germany in the years leading up to World War I.
The Süleymaniye Mosque was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent and completed in 1557. Designed by the master architect Sinan, it sat on one of Constantinople’s seven hills and dominated the city’s skyline. The complex surrounding it included schools, a hospital, a caravanserai, and the tombs of Suleiman and his wife Hürrem Sultan. It was considered the pinnacle of classical Ottoman architecture.
The Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Mosque in the Aksaray district was completed in 1871. It was built for Pertevniyal Sultan, the mother of Sultan Abdülaziz. The mosque’s design was eclectic — it mixed Ottoman, Gothic, and Moorish architectural elements in a way that reflected the empire’s exposure to European styles during the Tanzimat reform era. It stood as one of the last imperial mosques built in Constantinople before the empire’s decline.
The Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn was one of the busiest crossings in the Ottoman world. Merchants, soldiers, street vendors, and city residents all crossed it daily. From the bridge, the view of Constantinople’s skyline — with the minarets of the Blue Mosque and the dome of Hagia Sophia rising above the rooftops — was one of the most recognizable sights in the empire.
The Byzantine walls of Constantinople were among the most formidable defensive structures in the ancient world. Built in the 5th century under Emperor Theodosius II, they protected the city for over a thousand years. By the 1890s, large sections of the walls still stood, winding through neighborhoods and fields on the edge of the city. They were a physical reminder of the civilization the Ottomans had conquered and replaced.
The Rüstem Pasha Mosque was built in 1563 for Rüstem Pasha, the grand vizier and son-in-law of Suleiman the Magnificent. What set it apart was its extraordinary interior: every surface was covered in Iznik tiles, featuring intricate patterns in deep blues, reds, and greens. The mosque sat above a row of shops in the Eminönü district, and its revenues from those shops funded its upkeep — a typical Ottoman waqf arrangement.
The Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I — known widely as the Blue Mosque — was completed in 1616. It was the first mosque in the Ottoman Empire built with six minarets, a number previously associated only with the mosque in Mecca, which caused significant religious controversy at the time. Sultan Ahmet I resolved the dispute by funding a seventh minaret for the Mecca mosque. The interior of the Blue Mosque was covered in over 20,000 hand-painted Iznik tiles in shades of blue and white.
Topkapi Palace was the administrative and residential center of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years, from the 1460s until the mid-19th century. The Imperial Gate — Bab-ı Hümayun — served as the main public entrance to the palace complex. Above the gate, an inscription in Arabic calligraphy declared the power and titles of the sultan. Heads of executed criminals and enemies were sometimes displayed at this gate as a public warning.
The Scutari cemetery on the Asian side of Constantinople was one of the largest Ottoman cemeteries in the empire. Tall cypress trees lined its paths — a deliberate planting tradition in Ottoman burial grounds, as the cypress was associated with death and the afterlife in both Islamic and ancient Anatolian cultures. The cemetery’s scale reflected the size of the city it served and the centuries of Ottoman burial practices layered within it.
The Seraskerat was the Ottoman War Ministry, located in the Beyazıt district of Constantinople. It served as the central command of the empire’s military and was housed in a large complex with a prominent fire-watch tower that still stands today. In the mid-19th century, the Tanzimat reforms had reorganized the Ottoman military along European lines, introducing a modern conscript army and replacing the Janissary corps, which had been dissolved in 1826.
The Beyazıt Mosque, completed in 1506, was the oldest surviving imperial mosque in Constantinople. It was built by Sultan Bayezid II and drew heavily on the layout of Hagia Sophia, using a large central dome flanked by two semi-domes. The mosque sat next to the Beyazıt Square — one of the main public squares in the city — and beside the entrance to the Grand Bazaar, placing it at the commercial and spiritual center of Ottoman Constantinople.
The Bosphorus strait was the geographic and strategic heart of the Ottoman Empire. It connected the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and control of it meant control over trade between Europe and Asia. The shores of the Bosphorus were lined with wooden mansions called yalıs, imperial summer palaces, military barracks, and ancient fortresses. The Kuleli Military School, from whose grounds this view was taken, was established on the Asian shore in the 1840s.
Street barbers were a common sight in Ottoman Constantinople. They set up near busy public buildings and high-traffic areas, offering shaves and haircuts to passersby. Near the Seraskerat, where soldiers and government officials moved constantly through the district, a street barber could expect a steady stream of customers. This kind of street-level commerce was a defining feature of Ottoman urban life — small trades conducted in the open air, woven into the fabric of the city.
Hagia Sophia — originally built as a Christian cathedral by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 537 A.D. — was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. For the Ottomans, its conversion was both a religious act and a declaration of power. Four minarets were added to its exterior over the following centuries. By the 1890s, it had functioned as a mosque for over 400 years and remained one of the most recognizable structures in the world.
The Galata district and the Pera neighborhood above it formed the European commercial center of Constantinople. Galata was historically the quarter of Genoese merchants, and by the Ottoman period it housed a large population of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and European traders. The Galata Tower, visible from much of the city, had stood since 1348. Pera, the hillside district above Galata, was where European embassies, hotels, and modern shops were concentrated by the late 19th century.
Street fountains in Stamboul were not merely decorative — they were functional infrastructure for a city that relied on public water sources for daily life. Many were built or restored by sultans and high officials as acts of public piety, with inscriptions naming the benefactor and dating the construction. By the 1890s, hundreds of these fountains were scattered across Constantinople’s neighborhoods, each one a small piece of the empire’s architectural history embedded in an ordinary street.
The Yeni Cami — the New Mosque — stood at the edge of the Eminönü waterfront at the southern end of the Galata Bridge. Construction began in 1597 but was not completed until 1665, making it one of the last great imperial mosques built in Constantinople. The Eminönü bazaar directly beside it was one of the city’s busiest markets, where spices, dried goods, and everyday items were sold from hundreds of small stalls. The mosque and the market together created one of the most active public spaces in the empire.
Eyüp was one of the most sacred districts in Constantinople for Muslim residents. It was home to the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who died during the Arab siege of Constantinople in the 7th century. The site was a major pilgrimage destination within the city. Ottoman sultans traditionally came to Eyüp to be girded with the Sword of Osman — the ceremony that formally inaugurated their reign.
Street food vendors were an essential part of daily life in Ottoman Constantinople. Cooks and food sellers set up along the main thoroughfares, offering grilled meats, stews, bread, and pastries to residents who had no access to private kitchens or who worked long hours away from home. The rue de Stamboul — one of the main commercial streets in the city — was a natural gathering point for this kind of trade, with a constant flow of customers from every social class moving through it.
Fenerbahçe — meaning “lighthouse garden” — was a promontory on the Asian shore of Constantinople jutting into the Sea of Marmara. In the 1890s it was a relatively quiet coastal area with gardens and views of the sea. The Sea of Marmara connected the Bosphorus to the Dardanelles strait, making it a critical passage in Ottoman naval strategy and commercial shipping. Today the district is one of Istanbul’s most densely populated neighborhoods.
The Fountain of Sultan Ahmed III stood directly in front of the main gate of Topkapi Palace, adjacent to Hagia Sophia. Built in 1728, it was one of the finest examples of Ottoman Baroque architecture in the city. The fountain had five separate spouts — one at each corner and one on each facade — and was decorated with elaborate calligraphic inscriptions and ornamental niches. Together, the fountain and the converted cathedral behind it represented two of the most layered historical sites in the empire.
The interior of the Blue Mosque was designed to flood with natural light. Over 200 stained-glass windows lined the walls, and the high central dome rose 43 meters above the prayer floor. The walls were sheathed from floor to gallery in Iznik tiles featuring floral patterns in white, blue, green, and red. At the time of its construction in the early 17th century, the quantity and quality of the tilework made it one of the most elaborately decorated interiors in the Ottoman world.
Anadolu Hisarı — the Anatolian Castle — was built in 1393 by Sultan Bayezid I on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus. Fifty-nine years later, Sultan Mehmed II built a larger fortress directly across the strait on the European shore, the Rumeli Hisarı, to control the passage before his conquest of Constantinople in 1453. By the 1890s, both fortresses still stood, their towers and walls intact along the water’s edge, serving as visible anchors of Ottoman military history.
The Galata Bridge was the main link between the old city of Stamboul and the newer commercial districts of Galata and Pera. Several versions of the bridge were built across the 19th century. The version visible in these 1890s photographs was a pontoon bridge supported by floating hulls, wide enough for pedestrian and cart traffic. Beneath it, fishermen dropped their lines from the railings — a tradition that persisted for well over a century.
The Tophane district took its name from the Ottoman cannon foundry — tophane meaning “cannon house” — that had operated there since the 15th century. The foundry was one of the most important military-industrial sites in the empire, producing artillery for campaigns across three continents. By the 19th century, the area had also become a public square and waterfront space, with the ornate Tophane Fountain and the Nusretiye Mosque nearby.
These photographs were produced using the photochrom process, a technique invented in the 1880s by a Swiss printer named Hans Jakob Schmid while working for the Orell Füssli printing company in Zurich. The process involved transferring a photographic negative onto lithographic printing stones, then adding color through multiple layers of ink. The result was a print that looked like a hand-colored photograph but was produced mechanically, making mass distribution possible. By the 1890s, photochrom prints of tourist destinations across Europe and the Middle East were being sold widely, and Constantinople was among the most photographed cities in the catalog.
The mid-19th century brought a series of sweeping reforms to the Ottoman Empire known as the Tanzimat — meaning “reorganization.” Between 1839 and 1876, the government restructured its banking system, established a modern conscripted army modeled on European lines, and issued new legal codes that granted equal rights to all subjects regardless of religion. These reforms were an attempt to stabilize an empire that was losing territory on multiple fronts and facing financial pressure from European creditors. By 1881, the empire’s debts were so large that a European-controlled body called the Ottoman Public Debt Administration took over management of a significant portion of state revenues.
Constantinople’s harbor was a reflection of the empire’s reach. Ships from Russia, Britain, France, Greece, and the Levant docked alongside Ottoman vessels. The city’s position at the junction of two continents made it one of the most active ports in the Mediterranean world. In the 1890s, steam-powered ferries operated regular routes across the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, replacing older rowing boats and making the city’s water crossings faster and more reliable for the first time.
Modern Turkey was formally established in 1923, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the subsequent Turkish War of Independence. The photographs in this collection were taken roughly three decades before that moment — at a time when the empire still controlled vast territories and its capital was still one of the great cities of the world. They document a place and a way of life that, within a generation, would be fundamentally transformed.
