Today

The furnishings chosen by Mr. Celik Gulersoy, the General Manager of the Association were in the style of a 19 th century winter mansion. The building has an absolutely unrivaled location between Ayasofya and the Blue Mosque, and at the same ofters the visitor the warm, friendly atmosphere of an old Istanbul home. A conservatory was built in the garden, which also contains a monumental pool in pink porphyry from the mansion of the Serasker Riza Pasha in Yildiz. Although no publicity attended the opening of this unique building in March 1984 as the "Konak" hotel, it very quickly attained a world-wide reputation. the famous newspapers such as the Washington Post, New york Times and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, contributed articles expressing their admiration and appreciation... 

The best analysis of the role undertaken by Yesil Ev in Istanbul tourism comes from the pen of the historian of Byzantine art, Lord John Julius Norwich:
"Until recently, it has presented a problem in Istanbul: All the places we wanted to see were, on one side, and the big international hotels on the other. And so we were faced with a dilemma: whether to settle into some thirdrate fleapit in old Istanbul, knowing that we should at least have the great monuments on our doorstep, or the take refuge on the sanitized heights across the Horn and brave the traffic jams, perhaps half a dozen times a day. 

Most of us chose the latter: It was heigh-ho for the Hilton or Sheraton, with teeth gritted for the struggle ahead. Then, in the early 1980's, something wonderfull happened: Mr. Celik Gulersoy, director general of the Touring and Automobile Association of Turkey, opened an enchanting little hotel on the edge of the small park that separates the city's most venerable Byzantine church, St. Sophia, from the one of its magnificent Islamic monuments, the Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque, 

The hotel-called the Yesil Ev, for "Green House" was an old woodeen house of the mid-nineteenth century and in most cities would have been lovingly and sensitively restored by Mr. Gulersoy and filled with furniture and fittings of its own date-brass bedsteards, wooden wardrobes, plush chairs, carpets and chandeliers and authentic Turkish sliding wooden, lattices on the windows. 

To stay there is like staying in the house of an old friend, but with fever social obligations and considerably better room service. 

Inevitably, there are minor disadvantages: Your room will be rather smaller than in the big hotels, and your private bathroom will offer a shower instead of a bath-unless, of course, you are lording in the big Pasha's Room (No. 31), which is large and sumptuous and boasts a genuine Turkish hamam. You will have to do without air-conditioning, but them the climate of Istanbul seldom requires it.

On the other hand, where else would you find such a location-to say nothing of a quiet, cool garden in which yo can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the summer months and a flower-filled conservatory to retreat into if the evening grows chilly? Walk out the front door. Directly ahead are the Baths of Roxelana, wife of Suleyman the Magnificent, They too are being beautifully restored. To your left, in a range of small buildings recently completed, are the workshops of traditional craftsmen-book binders, joiners, calligraphers, makers of colored paper." 

This judgement was confirmed by President Mitterand, who chose Yesil Ev for his New Year visit in 1992/1993.

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