The Pera Museum occupies a 19th-century building on the Meşrutiyet Caddesi in Beyoğlu — the former Bristol Hotel, restored in 2005 by the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation. The collection focuses on Orientalist paintings — Ottoman subjects painted by European artists between the 17th and 19th centuries — alongside Anatolian weights and measures, Kütahya tiles, and temporary exhibitions that have included Frida Kahlo and Picasso. The Orientalist collection is one of the most important in the world for understanding the European perception of Ottoman life; read critically, it is also a study in projection. The building's position on the Pera hill, looking toward the Bosphorus, is the correct setting for a museum concerned with how Europe saw Turkey.
Beyoğlu, Istanbul, Turkey