If you get tired of mosques, the Museum of Modern Art in the New European Quarter is a good choice. There are works by well-known Turkish contemporary artists as well as younger ones, and there are recent exhibitions of contemporary photography. The restaurant faces the strait and the food is one of the best meals you've ever had in Turkey, but we went in the morning and the sun was so bright that it would have been nice to have a drink and watch the sunset in the evening. The Four Seasons hotel on the Peninsula near the Art Museum can probably be regarded as a certification of the surrounding scenery!

The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art was designed by Renzo Piano, who also created the Pompidou.

The slender structure, with striking glass and metal facades, reflects light and water from the Bosphorus. Located in the historic Beyolu district, replacing the existing building between the streets of the old town of Galata and the port cruise terminal, the fusion of literature and art enhances the connectivity between the different areas, the seagulls roost on the top floor, standing in the rain, the harmonious coexistence of the city, gazing alone, but also the beauty of the city.


The pool on the roof of the building is a magic stroke, the distant strait, the pool in front of the water, the ceiling of the metal plate, each other, bright light.

After five years of construction, this museum of modern and contemporary art in Turkey reopened in 2023 in the historic Beyoglu district, on the waterfront on the west bank of the Bosphorus, opposite the Ahmet District.

Great movie! The exhibits are also very interesting! Thank you for seeing such a beautiful sunset on your first day here!

The 15,000-square-meter building has five floors, three above ground and two below ground, and houses the existing art collection of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art and provides a welcoming environment for educational and cultural events. The transparent atrium provides the public with a work area for a cafeteria, a bookstore, a library, museum information points and the "Explore Space" project developed in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Look next to walk along the seaside, is the restaurant coffee shopping in one of the commercial galataport, also what bike!! 18:00 seems to be closed, if it is cloudy have to go early!

⏰ Estimated time of visit
▪️ If you are quick, you can finish it in an hour
▪️ You can enjoy the exhibition slowly for at least two or three hours

🎫 Ticket prices
▪️ The regular fare for foreign visitors is 500 lira
▪️ Group ticket (more than 10 people) 330 LIre
▪️ Student ticket 330 lira

🚏 Transportation Guide
▪️ Tram T1 is just next to Tophane station
▪️ You can also walk down the hill to the south after visiting the independent street and walk to the sea for about 15 minutes

The ground floor features a photo gallery, multipurpose rooms and staff offices. The mezzanine also houses a 156-seat auditorium for film screenings and events.

The design of the new museum is part of an overall regeneration master plan for 1.5 km along the pier. It is an intervention pioneered by Piano for the Botin Centre in Santander and the Stavros Nyarkos Foundation in Athens. It is now an urban focal point between the historic centre to the west, the Bosphorus to the south, the Tophane Park to the north and the new Galataport waterfront development to the east, which has replaced the old marina activities. The project improves connectivity between these different areas and becomes a social and cultural destination for residents and visitors.

The park to the north of the site, surrounded by historic buildings and bordered by a highway, is a green lung for the entire Galata region and a buffer zone, protecting the waterfront and museums from the noise of the city.

The ground floor of the museum was elevated to maximize the visual and physical connection between the waterfront and the park through a transparent atrium.


The 15,000-square-meter building has five floors, three above ground and two below ground, and houses the existing art collection of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art and provides a welcoming environment for educational and cultural events. The transparent atrium provides the public with a work area for a cafeteria, a bookstore, a library, museum information points and the "Explore Space" project developed in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris

The ground floor features a photo gallery, multipurpose rooms and staff offices. The mezzanine also houses a 156-seat auditorium for film screenings and events. Along the south facade is the modern Istanbul restaurant, which offers stunning views of the Bosphorus from the outdoor terrace, and at night, it also benefits from artificial lighting provided by Le Perroquet and Laser Blade L luminaires, which complement the general lighting provided by the Front Light on the track.

On the second floor, the lobby takes visitors to the permanent and temporary art galleries covering 3,300 square meters. Both galleries are open and flexible, and the concrete column structure defines the industrial character of the space. The gallery is illuminated by floodlights on the Palco track.

From the second floor, a staircase leads to a 450-square-meter covered observation deck that float on the shallow surface of the water that covers the entire roof, creating visual continuity with the Bosphorus.

My favorite

▪️ This sculpture/installation is very clever, there are about 10 stone sculptures, each of different shapes and colors, but through the glass you can see that half of the first one and half of the next fit together perfectly to form a continuous transformation, just as each of us is a unique individual. But there are so many similarities that tie them together (too bad you can't show them on video).


▪️ There are terraces on the top floor of the exhibition hall, and there are seats for you to rest, look at the sea and take photos. The most surprising thing is that the roof is deliberately designed as a reservoir for seagulls to stop. The scene is very spectacular, and nature and city are integrated!

In addition, the other exhibition content is also interesting, with pictures and video units, and the content is also broad, covering the economy, politics, youth identity, Turkish history, feminism and other topics. The presentation is also very novel! For example, there is a series of videos about four women's relationship with wigs, why they wear wigs, and their relationship with headscarves and politics. The audience sits on a bench, and there are four small speakers separated by a section of the chair, and you can hear different women's voices as you move, but you can feel four people talking at the same time from a distance, there is a sense of population!



After seeing the exhibition, you can go to the small terrace with the sea to watch the dinner and drink. You can also go out to the beach. It's the perfect place to go on a hot summer day! Amway everyone again!