The Lower Bosphorus’ European Shore - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 429

The palace interior was the work of the French decorator Sechan,
who designed the Paris Opera, and thus the decor and furniture of
Dolmabahçe are strongly reminiscent of those of French palaces
and mansions of the period. A number of European artists were
commissioned to adorn the palace with paintings, murals and ceiling
frescoes, and outstanding examples of their work, most notably
works of Zonaro, Fromentin, and Aivazovkski, can be seen in situ
and also in the Exhibition Hall, which has a separate entrance
approached by the ornate entryway on the main road. The opulent
furnishings of the palace includ 4,455 square metres of hand-woven
Hereke carpets; fireplaces and chandeliers of Bohemian and Baccarat
crystal, with the chandeliers numbering 36 in all, the biggest being
the 4.5-tonne giant that hangs over the State Room, the largest
chandelier in the world. Other furnishings include some 280 Chinese,
Japanese, European and Turkish porcelains, the latter produced in
the workshops of Yıldız Palace, along with 156 clocks, more than
500 silver and crystal candelabras, a dozen silver braziers, and
innumerable sets of crystal and silverware. A great showpiece is the
ornate stairway that leads up from the Salon of the Ambassadors, its
balusters made of crystal and its upper level framed with a colonnade
of monoliths of variegated marble, the grandest of seven stairways in
the palace.
The palace is built on a site famous in history as that from which
began the astonishing journey overland of some 70 ships of Fatih
Mehmet's fleet on 22 April 1453; up the hill to Pera they were drawn
on wheeled platforms and down the valley of Kasım Paşa to the
Golden Horn, thus bypassing the insuperable obstacle of the chain
which barred its mouth. After Fatih's time the area became a royal
garden; Evliya says that Selim I built a kiosk here, and in Gyllius'
time it was known as the Little Valley of the Royal Garden (Vallicula
Regii Horti). It was Ahmet I who began to fill in the small harbour in
order to extend his gardens, and the filling-in process was continued
by his son Osman II. As Evliya writes: “By order of Sultan Osman
II all ships of the fleet, and all merchant ships at that time in the
harbour of Constantinople, were obliged to load with stones, which
were thrown into the sea before Dolmabahçe, so that a space of 400