Pera Palace: The Istanbul Muse for Literary Giants

Opened in 1895 to cater to guests traveling on the Orient Express, the Pera Palace has become an Istanbul institution. Rail travel across Europe may no longer be the romantic affair it once was, but the Pera Palace continues to evoke feelings of a bygone era. This hotel has been captured in some of the most influential literature of the previous century and keeps the halcyon days of old Constantinople alive. The Pera Palace inspired and served Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, and many more.

The Orient Express is the name given to a passenger train that was once operated by the Belgian train company Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits between Paris and Istanbul. Launched in 1883, it made the journey across the continent in 80 hours and provided a direct link across Europe for the first time — although, until 1889, a change of trains was required in Giurgiu, Romania.

While the Orient Express was not intended to be anything other than a normal train service, the name soon became synonymous with luxury and opulence. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, international travel was only affordable for the wealthier echelons of society. This meant the train attracted a clientele who had grand expectations: made up mainly of bureaucrats, writers, and influential members of the upper classes.

Trains to Istanbul—or Constantinople as it was often known until 1930—arrived at Sirkeci Railway Station. This was selected as the terminus for its proximity to the ferry terminal, from where travelers could cross the Bosporus to Anatolia to continue their journey east.

Interestingly, it was not until 2013 that a railway tunnel under the Bosporus opened and transcontinental rail services began for the first time. To this day, these services—branded as Marmaray—serve Sirkeci Station.

The problem for guests traveling on the Orient Express in the early years of its operation was that there was no accommodation befitting the standards they expected around Sirkeci. Constantinople’s development was lagging — even the top hotels in the city at the time had no electricity or running water.

In 1892, it was decided that a new hotel, designed to meet the exacting standards of the Orient Express’ clientele, would be built. Plans were drawn up by French architect Alexander Vallaury, under instructions from Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits and three years later the Pera Palace’s opening was marked with a grand ball.

This luxurious establishment was the first building in the Ottoman Empire to be powered by electricity and was the only place in Constantinople that provided hot running water to every bedroom. On top of its facilities, being managed by the Orient Express’ operator gave the Pera Palace the upper hand, and it soon became the go-to hotel for the train’s passengers.

On December 3, 1926, the acclaimed English crime writer Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Sunningdale, Berkshire. Her car was found abandoned and rumor began to spread that Christie had taken her own life.

A few months earlier, her husband—Archibald Christie—had asked her for a divorce, disclosing that he had fallen in love with another woman. On the day of her disappearance, Archibald had told Agatha that he was going away for the weekend without her.

Her disappearance was reported to police, who later discovered that Christie had visited Harrods in London the very next day. However, she was not “found” until December 14th, a full 11 days after she went missing, at a hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. She had checked into the hotel as Tressa Neele, the name of her husband’s new lover.

No one truly knows where Christie went during those eleven days. Christie herself claimed to have no recollection of the period and her doctors diagnosed her as having had a “genuine loss of memory.” Critics accused her of staging the disappearance to frame her husband and gain publicity, while her biographer Laura Thompson concluded that Christie was suffering a nervous breakdown.

Another theory is that Christie traveled to Istanbul on the Orient Express and stayed at the Pera Palace. There are no records of her stay, however, given her use of an alias when she was finally found in Harrogate, it is entirely possible that she did the same here. When Christie died in 1976, Tamara Rand, a psychic, claimed that the writer had hidden the details of her stay in Room 411 at the Pera Palace. Rand described the spot in which the notes were hidden, and when the hotel’s management checked the room, they found a key sitting in the exact spot that Rand had described.

While Christie’s alleged stay in December 1926 is a mystery that will likely never be solved, we do know that she visited the Pera Palace regularly between 1926 and 1932. Whenever she stayed, she requested Room 411.

Christie was a regular on the Orient Express. In her autobiography, she stated “all my life I had wanted to go on the Orient Express,” noting that she had “longed to climb upon it” having seen the train on many occasions in Calais. Her opportunity came in 1926 when, purely by chance, she met a couple at a dinner in London who regaled her with tales of Baghdad. Two days later she set off for Iraq, heading first to Istanbul on the Orient Express.

In the years that followed, Agatha Christie became a regular passenger, turning inspiration from her journeys into the acclaimed mystery Murder on the Orient Express. The 1934 novel sees Hercule Poirot arrive in Istanbul from Baghdad when he is summoned back to London to solve a mystery.

In the book, Poirot stays at the Tokatliyan Hotel in Pera during his time in Istanbul. The Tokatliyan opened two years after the Pera Palace, in a similar style, and was located nearby.

The first part of Murder on the Orient Express was written at the Baron Hotel in Aleppo, a regular haunt for writers and diplomats before the outbreak of civil war in Syria. During Christie’s journey back to England, she stayed again at the Pera Palace where it is believed that she finished the novel.

Room 411 is now dedicated to her memory, bestowed with antique furniture and a replica of the typewriter Christie used during her time here. Guests staying in the room also have access to a library with a collection of her novels.

The American author Ernest Hemingway served with the Red Cross in Europe during the First World War when he fell in love with a nurse who he thought he would marry upon returning to the USA. As it would transpire, she became engaged to an Italian army officer and never returned.

Hemingway instead married Hadley Richardson and immediately returned to Europe, where they stayed mainly in Paris while he was working as a reporter for the Toronto Star. In 1922, he was dispatched to Istanbul to cover the events of the Greco-Turkish War. It was during this time that he stayed at the Pera Palace.

Unlike Christie, Hemingway mentions the hotel in his work, although maybe not in the romantic fashion the owners might have hoped. His reference comes in his 1939 short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro in which the narrator—an author by the name of Harry—recalls how he “turned up at the Pera Palace with a black eye” having fought with a British soldier over an Armenian prostitute.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a semi-autobiographical text. In the story, Harry is an author, dying of gangrene while on safari in Africa. It recounts Harry’s life story and his regrets of never reaching his full potential as an author. While not wholly true to Hemingway’s own life, it draws upon his experiences such as those in wartime Istanbul. Today, Hemingway is remembered at the Pera Palace with the Ernest Hemingway Suite.

Midnight at the Pera Palace

The most recent, and possibly most well-known, literary reference to the Pera Palace is Charles King’s 2015 historical book Midnight at The Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul. The book tells the story of Istanbul during the interwar years, a period of momentous change for the city as the Ottoman Empire gave way to the Turkish Republic and the city was officially renamed.

King’s book inspired the Turkish-made Netflix drama Midnight at the Pera Palace which first aired in March 2022. While not entirely true to the book, nor the history, the drama made Pera Palace a household name among younger generations.

With the changing international landscape at the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire began to crumble. The Turkish War of Independence, from May 1919 to October 1922, saw the Turkish Nationalist Movement—led by Mustafa Kemal—end the Ottoman Empire, and on 29th October 1923, the Republic of Türkiye was born.

Kemal, who later took the surname Ataturk, became the new country’s first President, an office which he held until his death on November 10, 1938. During his time in office, he was a regular visitor to the Pera Palace, using the hotel to host visiting dignitaries. Room 101, which was most commonly used to accommodate official visitors, is now a museum room, dedicated to Ataturk’s life.

King’s Midnight at the Pera Palace goes beyond the premise of the Netflix series—which focuses mainly on Ataturk—to note that the hotel did not always fare well. He tells the story of its decline in the troubled years of World War One when the Orient Express was suspended and the movers and shakers of the world stopped plying the Pera Palace with their trade. Midnight at the Pera Palace is a tale of how the Pera Palace recovered, and how Constantinople became the cosmopolitan city of Istanbul.

The Pera Palace continues to be one of Istanbul’s most prominent hotels. It became listed as a historically important building to be protected under Turkish law in 1983. Having begun to look somewhat uncared for, the façade underwent a major renovation in 2008, while ensuring the neo-classical design remained true to its original style. It currently has 115 rooms and 16 suites and maintains a number of original features, including the first electric-powered elevator in Türkiye.

The hotel was briefly operated by the Emirati-hotel chain Jumeirah during the 2010s but has now reverted to independent management. The Pera Palace continues to serve the higher end of the market, with a five-star rating.

Visiting the Pera Palace

A stay at the Pera Palace is highly recommended, not only for lovers of Christie and Hemingway but for anyone seeking a luxury hotel in Istanbul. The Pera Palace is conveniently located for visiting Istanbul’s main sights: Taksim Square, the Galata Tower, the Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern, and the Grand Bazaar are all within walking distance.

The lobby, Orient Bar, and Patisserie de Pera are open to non-residents, while Room 101—the Ataturk Museum Room—is open to visitors between 1000-1100 and 1500-1600 daily.

Room reservations can be made on the Pera Palace’s website or through a travel agent. The Christie Room and Hemingway Suite are often booked up months in advance.

Bibliography

Agatha Christie– Thompson, Laura- Headline Publishing Group, 2020.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro– Hemingway, Ernest- Jonathan Cape, 1939.

Midnight at the Pera Palace- King, Charles- Norton, 2015.

Agatha Christie An Autobiography- Christie, Agatha- Collins, 1977.