Tiled Kiosk

The Tiled Kiosk, known in Turkish as Çinili Köşk, is a two-storey pavilion standing within the outer walls of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, next to Gülhane Park. A tile inscription above the main entrance dates it to 1472, and it was built by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II as a pleasure palace or kiosk. It was also called the Glazed Kiosk. Its plan is a square, axial Greek cross, and because the building straddles a declivity only one floor shows from the main entrance. The glazed exterior bricks show a Central Asian influence, most clearly that of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand, and the stone-framed brick and polygonal facade pillars are typical of Persia. The building is ascribed to an unknown Persian architect, since it shows no Byzantine influence. Its interior is decorated with blue-and-white tiles arranged in hexagons and triangles in the Bursa manner. The pavilion served as the Imperial Museum between 1875 and 1891, opened to the public in 1953 as a museum of Turkish and Islamic art, and now forms part of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums as the Museum of Islamic Art, holding İznik tiles and Seljuk pottery.