Pera Museum

Pera Museum Review

A small private museum, housed in a grand, late 19th-century mansion, the Pera showcases a diverse range of exhibits. It's best known for its permanent collection of Orientalist paintings by both European and Ottoman artists, dating from the 17th to early 20th centuries and including panoramas of the city and scenes of daily life; The Tortoise Trainer by Osman Hamdi Bey—who also founded Istanbul's original Archaeological Museum—is particularly famous. Below that floor are two smaller permanent exhibits, one focusing on the history of Anatolian weights and measures from the Hittite period to the Turkish Republic, the other on Kütahya ceramics. The upper three levels house well-conceived temporary exhibits featuring local and international artists.