The Topkapi Palace

The Kitchen and the Porcelains Section

The Kitchens. A view of the interior of the Helvahane.

To the right side of the second court one can see the palace kitchen with its twenty tall chimneys. In the days when the palace was living, more than 1000 assistant cooks worked in the kitchen, preparing the menus for the different parts of the palace. Today, a part of the kitchen is unchanged in its original stade, and the rest is a beautiful museum of porcelains and china. About 2500 of the 12 000-plus pieces of chinaware of Chinese and Japanese origin in the palace collection is in display here. Furthermore, selected pieces of porcelains and glassware made in Istanbul are exhibited in a chronological arrangement. Recently this section of The Topkapi Palace Museum has been rearranged to include also European porcelains and silverware from the palace collection.

 A blue-white Chinese vase.