The project is intended to transform one of Istanbul’s most remarkable historic buildings into an immersive journey through the city’s past.

Located near Hagia Sophia, the hammam was designed in the 16th century by Mimar Sinan, the greatest architect of the Ottoman Empire, and commissioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent for his beloved wife, Hürrem Sultan, also known as Roxelana. From the very story of its creation, architecture, power, love, and the life of the Ottoman court are already deeply intertwined.

​

The hammam’s extraordinary spaces, its soaring domes, stone surfaces, vaults, shafts of light filtering through small openings, and the transitions between its various chambers, are not merely a setting for the exhibition, but become an integral part of both the narrative and the experience.

​

Rather than creating a conventional historical museum based on objects, display cases, and explanatory texts, we sought to create a place in which visitors step into history and experience it through space, light, sound, music, projections, and characters that come to life around them.

The point of departure is the story of Suleiman and Roxelana, and the era in which the Ottoman Empire reached the height of its power and cultural flourishing.

​

Yet the story does not end in the 16th century. Throughout the visit, we move through selected pivotal moments that shaped Istanbul and modern Turkey, encountering, even if only briefly, different periods, figures, and events that left their mark on the city and on Turkish culture.

​

The intention is not to present a chronological lesson in history, but rather a sequence of vivid tableaux and dramatic moments. Each space within the hammam becomes a stage for a different chapter, while the visitor moves between reality and imagination, present and past, with the historic building itself serving as the thread that binds the entire narrative together.

​

In this way, the hammam becomes more than an extraordinary historical monument. It is transformed into a theatrical time machine, where the stories of Sinan, Suleiman, and Roxelana merge with the broader story of Istanbul, all unfolding within the exceptional spaces of one of the masterpieces of Ottoman architecture.