The Mediha Sultan Palace (Mediha Sultan Sarayı / Mediha Sultan ve Damat Ferit Paşa Yalısı) is a Neoclassical mansion located by the waterfront of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey, in the Sarıyer neighborhood of Baltalimanı, on Rumelihisarı Street, on the European side of the Bosphorus.
It was built in 1840 for the Sultan’s Grand Vizier Mustafa Reşit Pasha by one of the famous Balyan brothers, a proficient architect of the time. After the Vizier’s son Galip Bey married Sultan Abdülmecid’s first daughter, Fatma Sultan, and they moved into this palace as their residence. Later the palace also housed the Sultan’s second daughter, Mediha Sultan and her husband Damat Ferid Pasha, another Grand Vizier of the time, who lived there for many years.
Galip Bey had a great influence on the approval of the Tanzimat Edict, a series of Ottoman reforms for modernization of the empire including commerce, trade, taxes and civil liberties.
Part of these historical reforms included the famous Baltalimanı Agreement which was signed in the Mediha Sultan Palace between the British, French, Belgians and Ottomans in 1838, granting permission for international free trade with foreigners.
The architectural style of the peachy-pink colored mansion is in a magnificent two-storey Neoclassical style. Spread over an area of 1600m2, the two story palace building contains 22 rooms, 1 hall and 13 service rooms on the ground floor and 11 living rooms and 7 service rooms on the second floor.
The valuables of the mansion and the books in the library from Damat Ferid Pasha were sold at an auction in 1925.
Today the palace serves as the Metin Sabancı Baltalimanı Osteopathic Hospital for bone related diseases.
