The construction of the hotel began in 1892, and its grand opening with a ball took place in 1895. The hotel was built according to the design of Alexandre Vallaury, a Franco-Turkish architect living in the city. It was constructed in a style combining neoclassicism, Art Nouveau, and Eastern architecture. Other works by Vallaury in Istanbul include the main building of the Ottoman Bank and the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Pera Palace was the first building in Turkey, aside from Ottoman palaces, to use electricity. Additionally, it was the only building in the city where guests could enjoy hot running water, and it housed the first electric elevator in Istanbul.

The hotel was built to accommodate passengers of the "Orient Express," a long-distance passenger train launched in 1883 by the International Sleeping-Car Company.

As the first modern hotel in Istanbul with electricity during the late Ottoman period, Pera Palace's reputation as a leader in amenities was further confirmed when it became the first hotel to install an electric elevator. Thanks to the luxurious assistance of the elevator operator, famous guests such as Zsa Zsa Gabor and Ernest Hemingway could fully enjoy the pleasure of riding the lift to their rooms. Crime novelist Agatha Christie had a favorite spot in the hotel—room 411, which now bears her name. You can relax in Agatha Christie's room, where she is believed to have written "Murder on the Orient Express," or dine in the aptly inspired Agatha restaurant.

One of the first owners of the hotel was the Ottoman Armenian Esayan family. Today, Pera Palace holds the status of an important historical building and is protected under Turkish cultural heritage laws.

Pera Palace has a 126-year history, having survived the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, two world wars, and the establishment of the new Republic. The hotel, which for many years gathered thousands of stories within its rooms, high ceilings, corridors, landscapes, and even its walls. The Pera district, where the hotel is located, lies in the very heart of Istanbul and is called Little Europe.

Room 101 of the hotel is a museum. This museum room, preserving the memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was his favorite place—he stayed here many times between December 1915 and October 1917. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, in 1981, the room was converted into a museum displaying his personal items of interest, such as blackwood chairs, exotic Eastern carpets, and a rare prayer rug made of black silk.

Pera Palace was one of the first places that came to mind for famous travelers in Istanbul and is situated in a unique location overlooking the Golden Horn. The legendary hotel offers an exquisite and celebrated history embodying the best that Istanbul can offer.

The exterior facade and the building’s layout are designed in neoclassical style. The hotel interiors are more Eastern in style, especially evident in the decoration of the ballroom. The café and the elevator with its surrounding space are in the Art Nouveau style.

Although Pera Palace was an important element of Istanbul’s cityscape, it required extensive renovation. In April 2008, the Beşiktaş Shipping Group launched a reconstruction and restoration project costing about 23 million euros. The work was completed on September 1, 2010.

Of course, Pera Palace would not have its phenomenal aura without the many historical figures who stayed here at different times. Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, King Carol I of Romania, Persian shahs and Russian tsars, French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Greta Garbo, spies Mata Hari and Kim Philby, artist Alexander Vertinsky, poet Joseph Brodsky, writers Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, director Alfred Hitchcock, Leon Trotsky, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Henry Pulling and his aunt Augusta Bertram, the main characters of Graham Greene’s novel "Travels with My Aunt," stay at the Pera Palace Hotel during their Istanbul adventure. Pulling, through whose eyes the story is told, is not impressed with the quality of the food served. Besides Agatha Christie, many celebrities, politicians, and kings have stayed at the hotel. At least 6 presidents, 11 kings, and 39 famous writers have stayed at Pera Palace.

Agatha Christie’s detective novel "Murder on the Orient Express" was supposedly written at the Pera Palace Hotel. The hotel has preserved Christie’s room in her memory.

You have surely heard many times about the luxurious 5-star Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, known as the place where Agatha Christie stayed several times and wrote "Murder on the Orient Express" during one of her visits.

Alexander Vertinsky wrote: “I disembarked from the steamer. In Constantinople. In exile. We settled not just anywhere but in the most fashionable hotel in Constantinople, the Pera Palace,” recalled Alexander Vertinsky. “We took off our Russian ‘costumes’—the famous actor’s wardrobe... and went out onto the street. On the Grand Rue de Pera, where many of our compatriots who had arrived before us were already strolling back and forth. Just like at home—somewhere in Kharkov, on Sumskaya Street—we walked. With our arrival, Constantinople quickly became Russified. On Rue de Pera alone, dozens of signs appeared: restaurants, cabarets, shops, offices, institutions, doctors, lawyers, pharmacies, bakeries... All of this called out, shouted, praising their goods, reminding of happy days gone by: ‘Grainy caviar,’ ‘Filippov’s pies,’ ‘Smirnov vodka,’ ‘Ukrainian borscht.’

Among many historical facts, there is also an episode linking Pera Palace with the history of Azerbaijan: “Alexander Nikolaevich had not yet left Pera Palace for Romania when, in 1921, in front of hundreds of onlookers right at the hotel’s doorstep, the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, Beybut Khan Javanshir, was shot. Four bullets were fired into him by Misak Torlakyan, a participant in the secret ‘Nemesis’ operation and a member of the Constantinople Dashnak group. Ernest Hemingway regretted that by pure chance he was not a witness to this event. The young reporter, who came to cover the Greco-Turkish war in the early 1920s, lived for a long time at Pera, which he warmly mentioned in his novel ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro.’”

In Ernest Hemingway’s story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” the main character, writer Harry, stays at the Pera Palace Hotel. The action takes place during the Allied occupation of Constantinople in World War I.

The hotel, built in 1892, became the country’s first luxurious 5-star hotel capable of hosting wealthy guests arriving in the city by the Orient Express. Its building was the first public place to have electricity and hot water connected. Before that, such luxury was only found in the Sultan’s palace.

The hotel building was the first modern building in Istanbul made of iron and steel. It was also built according to the wind rose to create natural air conditioning. The stained-glass domes above the “Kubbeli Lounge” salon could be opened like flower petals to provide natural circulation of fresh air.

Of course, the hotel is now equipped with an air conditioning system, but even today, when a guest enters the lobby, they can feel a pleasant atmosphere even in the height of summer.

The hotel installed the first electric elevator in Turkey and the second in the world after the Eiffel Tower. It still functions today, though it is used only to greet guests and for the first ascent. Today, the hotel is supplemented with modern elevators that are more spacious.

Pera Palace has the status of a “museum hotel.” On the 100th anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s birth in 1981, room 101 was transformed into the Atatürk Museum in honor of the founder of modern Turkey, who lived here for several years. Many of Atatürk’s personal belongings are kept in room 101.

The Palace Hotel has been and remains the traditional venue for the Republican Ball, celebrating the anniversary of the Turkish Republic on October 29.

The staircase in Pera Palace Hotel is designed to make it easier for guests to climb. The height of ordinary steps is 14-15 centimeters, while the steps in Pera Palace Hotel are 12 centimeters high. The “Piano Suite” room houses a century-old concert grand piano. Pera Palace is practically the only hotel in Istanbul with a piano in its suite.

The first fashion show in Istanbul took place at the Pera Palace Hotel in 1926.

Today, the hotel is considered an important historical structure and is protected by Turkish cultural heritage law. In April 2008, a large-scale renovation and restoration project costing 23 million euros began here.

The reconstruction project was completed on September 1, 2010.

Sources:

https://perapalace.com/

https://thearchitect.pro/ru/news/7279-10_faktov_o_legendarnom_otele_Pera_Palace_v_Stambule

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Пера_Палас_(отель)