Great Palace Mosaics Museum

The Istanbul mobile museum pass will get you access to this collection of mosaics. Well presented from the Byzantine area, this museum takes you over two levels to explore the exhibits. Incredible scenes of hunting, good, mythological beasts and everyday life

One attraction I hadn’t been to before was the Great Palace Mosaics Museum, containing excavated mosaics from the 5th century Byzantine Palace. There was a huge amount of information about how the mosaics were originally made, then rediscovered and restored but I was conscious that it wasn’t really Natalya’s thing so I skim read a lot. The mosaics were beautiful though, vibrant colours and lovely designs even 1500 years later and again, only a few minutes walk away.

Located near Arasta Bazaar, among a warren of small shops, this museum was created simply by roofing over a part of the Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors, which was discovered in the 1930s. In its heyday the palace boasted hundreds of rooms, many of them glittering with gold mosaics.The surviving mosaic has a surface area of 1,872 sqm (1,969 sq ft), making it one of the largest preserved mosaics in Europe. It is thought to have been created by an imperial workshop that employed the best craftsmen from across the Empire under the guidance of a master artist. In terms of imagery, the mosaic is particularly diverse, with many different landscapes depicted, including domestic and pastoral episodes, such as herdsmen with their grazing animals, as well as hunting and fighting scenes. The mosaic is thought to have adorned the colonnade leading from the royal apartments to the imperial enclosure beside the Hippodrome, and dates from the late 5th century AD

One of the underrated spots of Istanbul is The Great Palace Mosaics Museum near the Hagia Sophia museum. I have to confess the building of the museum is not modern and not attractive, but art pieces are extremely beautiful and meaningful. Giant mosaics had been used in Byzantions Great Palace now lay on the ground like puzzle pieces while some smaller mosaics are represented in the walls. It is just 5 mins walk from Sultanahmet Mosque via Arasta Bazaar.

It was slightly difficult to find but it is well worth the visit to the museum. You can see the mosaics inside and there is a small gift shop area at the end which leads out into Arasta Bazaar.

Located behind a small bazaar, between the Blue Mosque and the Sea, the museum houses a small part of the mosaics on which the Byzantine emperors walk, dressed in their purple robes, starting with Justinian, in the Royal Palace's rooms. You have the opportunity to see a wealth of colors and a finesse of detail that touched painting and give you an idea not only about the craftsmanship of the mosaic craftsmen for more than 1,500 years ago, but also about what Imperial luxury meant at that time. Many tourist guides allocate 1 hour for visiting, but you have to be hardened, so your soul will not resonate with such beauties that make you will not to leave. Entry is paid and can be shot indoors, but without a flash.
Situat în spatele unui mic bazar, între Moscheea Albastră și mare, muzeul adăpostește o mică parte din mozaicurile pe care pășeau, îmbrăcați cu mantiile lor purpurii, împărații bizantini, începând cu Justinian, în încăperile Palatului Regal. Aveți ocazia să vedeți o bogăție a culorilor și o finețe a detaliilor care frizează pictura și să vă faceți o idee nu numai despre meșteșugul meșterilor mozaicari de acum mai bine de 1500 de ani, dar și despre ce însemna, la acea dată, luxul imperial. Multe ghiduri turistice alocă 1 oră pentru vizitare, dar trebuie să fi împietrit, pentru ca sufletul tău să nu rezoneze la asemenea frumuseți, încât să nu-ți mai vină să pleci. Intrarea este plătită și se poate fotografia la interior, dar fără bliț.

I like this museum. Of course it's not that big and fascinating, however it has all the nedeed description for installations as well a good collection of mozaic from far away past in a good quality. It cost me 120 during winter 2022, as well search beforehand how to get to the place because it's not on the most visible site and the exit of the museum is on the market

Rather small museum, but it displays some interesting mosaics, it seems like a speciality museum for those who have a particular interest in this medium; for the general public this is a 15 minute side-trip that can be skipped

Great art is there.. but it needs to be air-conditioned we couldn't enjoy the art for a long time because it was hot.

This is a great museum to go to, especially because it is not terribly busy. Mosaics that were salvaged from the great Byzantium palace, constructed or rather remodeled during the reign of Theodosus I. The mosaics are an incredible bit of history that is well preservered.

Rlly worth visiting cause it's included in the Museum pass. Nice and quiet place on the backyard of ur Mosque. You see pictures made from pieces of glass and stone made hundreds years ago. Just imagine! These mosaics older then almost all European states. They are totally wonderful. Of course ages and people damaged lots of them, but museum is trying to reconstruct existing.

Very interesting museum! It's a shame not to visit it if you are in the area.

This is sadly about all that's left of the enormous Imperial Palace of ancient Constantinople. Considering that travelers chronicled all the marvels of the emperors' abode, but never mentioned these fantastic floors, gives us some some sense of the luxury and grandeur that has been lost forever. If the Greeks still ran the show here, this entire area would have been excavated, including eliminating the blue mosque just to upset the turks.

I have visited a lot of Roman ruins and mosaics in many countries and these are the best, biggest, and most colourful and intricate mosaics I have ever seen. The people dissing it in the reviews here have no idea how amazing and special it is to see something like this!!

Before I visited I thought it was just a random collection of mosaics, but it is THE mosaic that decorated the Imperial Palace of Constantinople, in the time of Justinian I - an enormous floor mosaic (now displayed with some pieces separately as it hasn’t all survived).

The mosaics are intricate and colourful, with amazing gradients of colours and incredible subjects of hunting scenes, wild animals (often eating other animals, including mosaic blood), mystical creatures and children playing. Apparently there’s 40,000 tiles to the square metre with about 75-80 million tiles here total.

This is an incredibly underrated attraction and for people into Roman ruins, this will be a highlight.

If you have the highly worthwhile Museum Pass it’s free entry here (I recommend getting the pass as it saves you money if you plan to visit Aya Sofya, Topkapi Palace and the Archaeological Museum and you skip the queues.)

Interesting - particularly appreciated information at the end about conservation efforts. The only exhibits in the museums are mosaics from the Byzantine Era Great Palace - but these are quite impressive.

Ancient mosaics, nice experience of visiting the place. Easy to find and access, friendly staff :)

My husband and I stumbled across this museum pretty last minute on our trip and I am glad we did. Although the collection is not big itself, the history of the mosaics they do have is pretty impressive. The mosaics are intricate and interesting and they are thousands of years old which is pretty cool. This was a great thing to do if you're looking to kill a little time.

The entrance was a little tricky to find. Tickets were easily purchased, and entry was seamless. It is a small museum that punches well above it weight. The exhibits are well worth the 60TL entrance fee. The boards describing the artefacts were in the main clear. However, maybe a model showing precise location of mosaics in the buildings of great Palace similar to the one in Tekfursaray might be helpful?
The mosaics themselves, considering their age and history are well worth viewing.

It has interesting mosaics and it wasn't crowded so that you can spend all your time just a piece of mosaics.

You can see some pretty intricate mosaic art in a short period of time. Worth a visit.