Hotel Yesil Ev, Istanbul

The rebuilt mansion of an Ottoman grandee, set on the edge of a small park that separates the Hagia Sophia from the Blue Mosque. The original wooden house was in terminal dereliction when it was acquired and lovingly restored by the Turkish Touring and Automobile Club under the leadership of Mr. Celik Gulersoy.
The late-Ottoman interior was reproduced in splendid style, with tasseled velvet curtains, brass bedsteads, chandeliers and gilded period chairs. A genuine Turkish bath was built into the sumptuous Pasha's Room (no. 31). A high point of Yesil Ev (which means 'Green House') is the marvellously quiet, high-walled garden which sports a monumental fountain of pink porpryry and a flower-filled conservatory which serves in season as a cafe and restaurant.

Next door, the cloister of an historic medrese, or Islamic college, is converted into a showcase of traditional Turkish arts, where calligraphers, book-binders, ceramic-painters and makers of silk print display their crafts. President Mitterrand of France chose Yesil Ev for his state visit to Turkey at the end of 1992.