The Palace Today
The Pera Palace in 2016 remains a place of luxury and intrigue among the visitors of Istanbul. The renovations to the site have been argued as restorations on the preceding page, and moving forward with that assumption, the conversation comes to the question of the Pera Palace as a lieux de memoire in the greater picture of Istanbul as a city. Since it’s opening in 1892, the hotel has stood firmly in the heart of the Beyoglu District in Istanbul, and while the world around it sped up, the hotel stayed constant. It’s restoration from 2006-2010 revamped what was becoming an antiquated hotel, and in staying consistent with the hotel’s character, decided to turn the old hotel into an intentionally retro attraction.
It is still advertised as a luxury hotel, and while there are certain rooms that are advertised as having had famous guests, the remainder of the hotel has manifested itself into a lieux de memoire because of its intentional antiquity.