“With a Pipe, or With a Twig”
The main reason to visit the Asian Bosphorus suburb of Çubuklu is to see the splendid hilltop Hıdiv Kasrı (Khedive’s Villa) whose distinctive tower is visible from miles away – there’s a particularly fine view of it from the terrace of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum across the water in Emirgan. The villa is a reminder of a rarely mentioned period in the late 19th and early 20th century when the rulers of Egypt became partial to spending their summers in Constantinople and decorated the shores of the Bosphorus with fine mansions. It was built for Abbas Hilmi Paşa, the last khedive, or governor, of Egypt and Sudan from 1892 to 1914 when the British deposed him for fear that he would take the Ottoman side in the First World War.
Abbas Hilmi originally spent his summers in a waterside property but in 1907 commissioned the new villa for the hill behind it. Oddly, it’s not certain whose were the design brains behind this landmark building. Although some claim it as a work of the great Art Nouveau architect, Raimondo d’Aronco, the operator of the restaurant currently housed inside it regard it as the work of Austrian, Antonio Lasciac. Yet another possiblity is Italian, Delfo Seminati. But regardless of who designed it, the villa is a splendid example of Levantine Art Nouveau set in a lovely wooded garden that is at its finest in April during the Tulip Festival.
Externally the most striking feature of the building is the tall square tower. This soars above a lovely entrance hall with marble columns ringing a fountain and a lift off to one side with a padded velvet seat inside it. This is a building that repays close attention to every detail. Look closely at the doorframes, for example, and you’ll see tiny carvings of berry-picking bears with leaves thrown over their shoulders like cloaks. There is also some splendid marquetry as well as some gorgeous light fittings. Even the tiles in the bathrooms are beautiful.
Afterwards you can follow a path back down behind the building which will bring you past a small waterfall and some striking gate-houses before depositing you back on the coast road at Çubuklu.
Just north stand a set of old storage silos that were imaginatively converted in 2024 into a cultural centre called Çubuklu Silolar.
Transport info
To get here take a bus (or ferry) from Üsküdar to Kanlıca, then follow the signs uphill. Returning, if you re-emerge at Çubuklu at certain times you can catch a ferry back to Üsküdar (https://www.sehirhatlari.istanbul/). If not there are plenty of buses along the coast road too. A frequent car ferry also operates between Çubuklu and İstinye on the European shore.
