Turkey
Ishak Pasha Palace
A frontier palace with heating in its stone walls, its golden doors still in the Hermitage.
The palace holds a ledge of bare rock above the Doğubayazıt plain. Beyond its courtyards, Mount Ararat rises over a ring of mountains while the old citadel grips a crag nearby. Inside, pale stone shifts from Ottoman arches to Seljuk geometry and Iranian-influenced detail, each doorway framing another slice of the high frontier.
Ishak Pasha Palace stands five kilometres east of Doğubayazıt in Ağrı province, on a high platform overlooking the plain. Begun around 1685 and completed in 1784, it draws Seljuk, Ottoman, Persian and Armenian forms into two courtyards, a mosque, harem, ceremonial rooms, baths and dungeons. Its gilded doors were carried off during the 1828 Russian occupation and are reported in the Hermitage collection to this day, and fireplaces with channels inside the stone walls show the palace once had central heating. The carved portals are the close-up reward; Ararat and the surrounding ranges make the setting feel vast.
Solo
The palace's remote position at Turkey's eastern edge gives it an end-of-the-world intensity. The fusion of architectural styles rewards careful attention, and the silence is total.
Couple
Ararat turning pink at sunset behind the palace silhouette is one of Turkey's most dramatic views. Menengiç coffee in Doğubayazıt afterwards brings you back to earth gently.
- Built from 1685 and completed in 1784, the palace blends Seljuk, Ottoman, Persian and Armenian architecture on one high terrace.
- The gold-plated entrance doors were removed by Russian forces in the 19th century and are reported in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
- The palace sits on a rock platform five kilometres east of Doğubayazıt, facing Ararat across the plain.
- Stone fireplaces and channels within the walls show the palace once had a central heating system.
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