Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It was evidently built somewhat later than the adjacent Salon of
Murat III, which is dated by an inscription to 1578. The tradition
that this room, like Murat's, is by Sinan is not impossible; Murat may
well have decided to add an even grander room to his already very
beautiful suite. This great room is certainly worthy of Sinan and if
not built by him cannot at all events be very much later.
We pass through a small but lavishly tiled antechamber into the
Salon of Murat III, often but erroneously called his bedroom. his
is undoubtedly the most beautiful room in the Saray, retaining the
whole of its original decoration. The walls are sheathed in Iznik tiles
at the apogee of their greatest period; the panel of plum blossoms
surrounding the elegant bronze ocak is especially noteworthy, as is
the calligraphic frieze that runs around the room. Opposite the ocak
is an elaborate three-tiered fountain of carved polychrome marble
set in a marble embrasure. But it is the perfect and harmonious
proportions of the room as much as its superb decoration that lend
it distinction and charm. As we have said, it was created by Sinan in
1578. Early in the next century (1608-9) Ahmet I added a pendant
to it on the west, a much smaller room but domed and tiled almost
as beautifully as Murat's. It looks out over the pool and garden and
the much later marble terrace of Osman III, and the light reflected
from the predominately blue-green tiles gives it a cool and aqueous
atmosphere. A century later still (1705-6) Ahmet III added or re-
decorated another tiny room to the south, called Yemış Odası, or
the Fruit Room, because of the painted panels of fruit with which
the walls are decorated. This belongs to the high Tulip period and
shows the first beginnings of European rococo inluence; but of all
the rococo rooms in the Palace this is surely the most bewitching.
We now retrace our steps through Murat's Salon and antechamber
and come on the left to a pair of very beautiful rooms until recently
identified as the Cage, the place of confinement of the Sultan's
brothers. This was never a very convincing identification and has at
last been definitely abandoned, the Cage being now identified with
the many small and dark rooms on the upper floor over the Council
Place of the Jinns, from the west end of which opens the first of the
rooms we have come to. It is not known exactly when or why they
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