English: Live on the 24th of October, 2014. Turkey, Istanbul. Dolmabahçe Palace Garden. Dolmabahçe Palace, begun by Abdülmecit in 1844. The commission went to another Balyan, the court architect Garabet, and when the palace was finished twelve years later it became the residence and administrative centre of the sultans. The interior was completed by Charles Séchan, decorator of the Paris Opéra. Two entrances grace the outer wall: the Sultanate Gate (today’s entrance) and the Treasury Gate, now facing the road to Beşiktaş. Their semi-elliptical shapes are decorated with cut-stone garlands, flowers and acanthus swirls, topped with Abdülmecit’s monogram. Symmetry reigns in both the layout of the rooms and their decoration: for every Chinese vase or Russian bear rug, there is another just like it. The building is L-shaped, with the queen mother’s apartments at the corner and the harem section leading inland from the Bosphorus. Giant chandeliers hang in most rooms. The greatest, weighing five-and-a-half tons, is in the 40-by-50-metre Throne Room, said to be the largest room in Europe. Faceted crystal sparkles above the Copeland porcelain fireplaces. Baccarat crystal columnettes support the mahogany railing of the main staircase. Columns abound – singly, in clusters and as pilasters, as in a baroque church. Those in the interior are wooden, but marbled with highly polished stucco lustro. In the garden are two wooden houses, the Hareket, or Tremor, Kiosks, built to enable the royal family to shelter in safety in the event of an earthquake. Atatürk spent his last days in the palace in 1937. Today all 158 of its clocks are set at five past nine, the time of his death. - Claire Karaz http://www.cornucopia.net/guide/listings/sights/dolmabahce-palace/ ©© Derzsi Elekes Andor, Budapest, 2014, Published in the Metapolisz DVD line. You are authorised to use this vid under Creative Commons – even for commercial, for profit purposes. The vid must be attributed to Derzsi Elekes Andor. All of the photos and vids in the Metapolisz DVD line are under Creative Commons and can be used even for commercial – for profit – purposes. Recommended Citation Derzsi Elekes Andor: Metapolisz DVD line http://nektar.oszk.hu/en/manifestation/2623913