Add a review about the Mosaic Museum

In the 20s of the last century . on the site of abandoned buildings in the Sultanahmet area, construction work was conducted . As a result, an unexpected invaluable finding was made: archaeologists discovered the remains of a large scale structure . After long and careful excavations revealed that the peristyle of the Constantinople palace of the Byzantine emperors was found, as well as parts of the columns of the Corinthian order . However, the main attention of archaeologists was attracted by perfectly preserved mosaics that served as decoration of the majestic palace and the portico in the cloisters . The total area of ​​the mosaics was discovered 2,000 sq m . .

This discovery formed the basis of the Istanbul Museum of mosaics, with open it was decided right here, at an archaeological site. The Mosaic Museum in Istanbul appeared in 1953, then it was part of the archaeological museum, and in 1979 it was transferred to the management of the Hagia Sophia Museum. By the way, the age of the exhibits of the mosaic museum is much more solid than the world-famous mosaics presented in Aya-Sophia and the Chora church, the majority of local decorative works date back to the time of pagan Rome.

The age of the mosaic museum exhibits is much more solid than the world-famous mosaics presented in Ayia- Sofia and in the church of Hora, most of the local decorative works date back to the times of pagan Rome.

Museum building

Originally a wooden building was built for the exhibition, and this circumstance is ruining nym affected the safety of the mosaics. Because of the rather sharp temperature changes and humidity for several years, demonstrations in the museum mosaics suffered much more than for all the centuries of their underground existence. In 1987, a more modern building was built for the mosaic museum, which was modernized in 2012.

Exposition of the museum

The museum collection numbers about 90 different genre mosaics, illustrating the daily life of the Byzantines. In general, these are pictures of everyday nature: hunting scenes, children's games, images of everyday troubles; but there are also more exotic subjects: mythical and unusual animals, warlike contests of wild animals. Here is the lion devouring the lizard, here the woman nurses the baby with care, and here the beautiful nymph holds the amphorae.

The mastery of the ancient artists admires to this day: the mosaics are executed incredibly realistically and as detailed as possible. For 1 square. m mosaic required more than 40 thousand tiny glass, lime, terracotta cubes - that's really really laborious work!

The exposition presents a variety of mosaics in size and theme. There are very small fragments of less than 1 square. m, and there are giant mosaics more than 6 square meters. m.
Mosaic Museum in Istanbul

Useful information

. Address: Fatih Istanbul, Sultanahmet, Arasta Carsisi

Phone: +90 (212) 518-12-05

E-mail: mozaik@muze.gov.tr ​​

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday.. 9:00 - 19:00 (from April to October, the rest of the museum is open until 17:00), Monday: closed

Login: TRL 10

to get to the museum can be a high-speed tram T1.. to stop Sultanahmet. Next, you need to go through the market rows of the Arasta market, located behind the Blue Mosque. Follow the signs and carefully look around: among the carpets and souvenirs hanging everywhere, between the two shops you will see the door, this is the entrance to the mosaic museum.


All prices are for November 2014